Sorrow and Pain
by WishingDreamer5
Summary: Post KH2, kinda AU. DiZ's brother died in a car-accident, along with the rest of his family. The only survivor goes to Destiny Islands, but strange things happen at her school. The thirteen teachers are all weird. They seem to hide something important, but what could that be? And what does that secret room have to do with all of this? -Read at own risk!
1. Prologue

**A/N: I don't own anything of Kingdom Hearts, only this story and Hailey, Marina and aunt Veronica. And mind you that this is my first story, so don't eat me, or anything please. :) Don't know how you would be able to do that, though, but still. XD Anyways, I'm rambling too much. So on with the story. Enjoy reading! :)**

**EDIT 08/28/2011: Just a warning, this is, in my eyes, a terrible story, but since it's my first story, I won't delete it. Save for chapter 18, this prologue is probably the only part of the story worth reading. Don't say I didn't warn you if you decide to read along...**

* * *

_Prologue_

"Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!" Hailey cursed under her breath, as she looked at the slightly deep gash in her arm.

_IF_ she was going to die of this bleeding wounds, then she would make sure to kill that man until he died from it! First the bleeding, thanks to Mr. Flamesilocks's chakrams, and now a burnt skin, too? It looked bad, but at least she could still feel the pain (well, she wasn't going to say 'hurray' at that, because it really hurt), which meant that at least her nerves weren't damaged and burned.

All of this had kinda happened all of a sudden. At first, everything had been okay, good enough, but then: BOOM! Everything had changed, with a single '_SNAP_' of the fingers, as some people put it. Before Hailey could even blink and say "procrastinating," they were surrounded by everlasting chaos. Things had gotten more and more serious - and dangerous! - as the seconds passed. Hailey was fully aware of that, but there wasn't much she could do. Moreover, she was sure that the whole town had been able to hear the sounds of the battle that had taken place here. No wonder everyone thought this mansion was haunted. At least that kept most people away from this place.

Everything had been all Axel's fault, of course. Well, more or less. He had been playing for some kind of a baby-sitter for Xion and Roxas for quite a while now and now that they were both gone, he had become completely insane - as in: even more insane than normally -, demanding them to give Roxas and Xion back. He even somehow had managed to get inside of this mansion. But then again, that was no surprise, because he could make Dark Corridors anywhere he wanted. Maybe DiZ should make a note of that, for the next time. That is, if there would be any next time. Axel had already left again, thanks to Hailey, who had, miraculously enough, been able to stop him from taking Roxas with him by fighting with him and distracting him (and look at the result...). That had given her uncle and Ansem some time to move Roxas away to another, safer secret chamber. They all knew that Axel would come back soon again, though. And to add insult to injury, Xemnas was still after Hailey and her uncle, Ansem the Wise, better known as DiZ.

Hailey and DiZ weren't the only ones here in this gigantic and slightly creepy mansion, though. Naminé - a sweet, somewhat pale and innocent-looking "witch" with bright blue eyes and light blond hair. She wore a white dress and sandals and pretty much resembled the picture that Hailey had of an angel - and another guy - call it coincidence or not - who's name also was Ansem were staying with them in the mansion in Twilight Town, too.

However, the man was a real mystery. He was quiet, sarcastic, calm, collected, and kinda cool, too. It was almost _scary_ that he didn't show any emotions as anger and sadness, especially because they all knew that he wasn't a Nobody. He always wore a black cloak to protect himself from the darkness that he tended to wield sometimes. Strangely enough, he had the same face as Xehanort, or Xemnas, or whatever the heck the jerk's name was lately. It had been quite a shock for Hailey when he had shown her his face.

"Hailey, you've got to get out of this place! This isn't a joke! I'll never forgive myself if anything happens to you here. You know what Xemnas is up to, right?" DiZ spoke sternly, handing her a high-potion that he seemed to get from under his crimson red cape.

Hailey rolled her eyes at her uncle's comment. Grown-ups were so worried all the time. It wasn't healthy anymore.

"Of course I do. It's kinda hard to forget _that_, you know, but it's not like I can't handle him, since I'm still alive. Besides, I'm not alone in this. Ansem is with me almost all the time. Why can't he become my baby-sit...eh, I mean my bodyguard, or something, if that pleases you more?" Hailey asked, defiantly, opening the bottle with the green liquid in it.

She brushed her long black hair out of her face and put the rim of the bottle on her lips. How she hated the smell and bitter taste of it...

DiZ sighed wearily, as if he was trying to explain something quite obvious to a four year-old child who didn't seem to get anything from his babbling. Hailey was four times older, but she still didn't get it why he had to make everything so difficult. Fleeing from here wouldn't help anything. She was sure that they all knew it, because this mansion was the safest place for her to stay at the moment. Xemnas was after her and it was very likely that he also wanted to kill her. He would chase her over the whole multiverse if he had to, she didn't have any doubts about _that_. Nothing was going to stop the evil mastermind, so why not better face him now?

"Hailey, even with a guardian like Ansem, it will still be dangerous here for you. Or have you already forgotten what he has done so far to many people you know?" her uncle reminded her.

"No," she replied with clenched teeth, not wanting to think about that one event that had occured not too long ago.

That event had changed her life drastically. If that one thing never had happened, then she wouldn't even be here now. But alas, it had happened, and now she had face the consequences, whether she wanted to or not.

Hailey looked up to Ansem this time, desperately begging for some support and help from his side. Well, she couldn't really see his eyes, for his face was always hidden, but she thought that she saw two glistening orbs which could be his eyes. Now that she thought about it, what was it with these guys and always hiding their faces? Her uncle also hid his face with a bordeau red piece of cloth, which was wrapped up all over his face, making him much look like an evil, dead vampire-zombie...or zombie-vampire. Really, was there any difference? Such a pity that it also hid his long, blond hair, which was something she liked so much about him, mainly because it reminded her of her father. The only thing she could see from her uncle now, were his brown-orange-colored eyes.

"I'm afraid that your uncle is right here. We don't want you to get hurt in all this. We know you can defense yourself fairly well, but even you have to admit that it's still a wonder that you're alive after everything that's happened so far. From now on, you shouldn't take any risks," the other Ansem spoke with his characteristic deep voice that always sent up chills down on Hailey's spine.

She tried to hide that fact and just hoped she wouldn't fail miserably in doing so, as she gave him a fierce look. "Gee, thanks a bunch for choosing my side, as always. It's good to know I can always count on you. And I seriously don't get why people have to remind me of that every friggin' time," she grumbled, surly.

"You're welcome. You asked for it," was the simple answer.

Hailey rolled her dark eyes once again. It had become quite a habit for her eversince she had met the sarcastic man.

"Then I'm afraid I don't really have any choice, huh?" she inquired, softly, averting her gaze from the man.

"I'm afraid you don't, my child. But look at it on the bright side: you'll see your favorite aunt again," her uncle said, desperately trying to cheer her up.

Hailey this time chose to snort instead of rolling her eyes. "Uncle DiZ, she's my _only_ aunt, remember?"

"And Destiny Islands is a beautiful and peaceful place. The weather's always great and the people who live there...they are all nice, too. I'm sure you will like it there," Ansem added, as if she hadn't said anything.

Hailey sighed deeply and nodded, feeling that she had lost this argument.

"And please don't worry about how you'll reach that place. Ansem will teleport you to Veronica's house when you've fallen asleep, so you won't notice anything from the trip."

Once again, Hailey nodded briefly. "Okay."

"I wrote a letter for your aunt. Do you mind if I gave it to you, so you can hand it to her?" DiZ asked.

At this, Hailey had to smile. Her uncle could be so sweet sometimes.

"No, go ahead. I'm sure aunt Veronica will be pleased to read it."

With that said, he turned around in one, quick move and walked out of the computer room, the place he hung out the most. Hailey figured that he really must miss his wife a lot, for it had almost been a year since they had met for the last time. Another thing that was Xemnas's fault, the bastard.

Ansem and Hailey were the only one left. The only sound they heard were the sounds that all the computers were making.

"So..." he started, not really knowing how to continue, so he stopped.

"So... is there any chance we'll meet again?" Hailey asked out of the blue.

She could've slapped herself for that action, right then and there. Honestly, where had _that_ come from?

She felt how the man's gaze rested on her for a short moment, as if wondering if he should be honest to her, before he replied with, "I don't think so, but... who knows? Maybe we'll meet again indeed."

"Then I can't wait for that moment to happen."

She had said that too before she had been able to stop herself right in time. But the following words didn't make her regret it at all.

"...Neither do I."

Hailey smiled a little. The guy sure wasn't much of a talker, but when he said something, he always knew how to make her laugh and/or feel better. That was one of the many things she liked about him, even if he looked like her worst enemy. This was yet another proof that one shouldn't judge a book on its cover.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading, and not shooting me (yet)! Hope you've enjoyed it. ^_^ You know, the very first time I saw Riku in KHII, refering to himself as "Ansem" I thought he and DiZ were the bad guys. I had no idea how wrong I was about that. XD I know it's kinda strange to write the prologue so late. I hadn't intended to write one, but I felt like writing it. And as you may or may not know, the next chapters will be longer, so don't worry about the shortness of the chapters. ;)**** And I'm sorry if it's all a bit vague, but as you will read the other chapters, you'll get to know more and more about the situations. This was just to make all the new readers more curious, so did it work? :P Reviews are highly appreciated! :)**


	2. I A new beginning

_Hailey was sitting in that same car again, with her parents and her little sister. Hailey wasn't surprised, because she kept dreaming about this moment. She knew what was going to happen, but at the same time, she didn't. But the nagging feeling that made her stomach twist and turn occassionally, still stayed there._

_Hailey and her cute little sister who had black hair and blue eyes, sat in the backseats, while Mom sat in the front seat with Dad. Hailey's father, a quite handsome and muscular man, was driving their car, a red Toyota Corolla. Hailey could see in the rear-view mirror that he was frowning, like he always did when he was concentrating on the road. It made him look quite serious and that was so not like him. Normally, he was always a funny and carefree man that made the funniest jokes ever._

_"Mum, I still feel sick," Mia, Hailey's little sister whined._

_'Oh god, not again. The last time this happened, it was all over me,' Hailey thought, extremely annoyed when she remembered the aformentioned incident again._

_It had taken her a whole day to forget that horribly strong smell that had come free with the acidic substance. It had almost made her puke, too._

_Her mother turned around in her seat to look at Mia, her youngest daughter._

_"Sweetheart, just close your eyes and think about your favorite day or something," her mum said, smiling sweetly at her._

_'Yeah, like that will help, but at least it'll make her shut up for a while...or so I hope. I think I'm starting to get sick of her whining.'_

_Hailey's dad looked at Mia via the rear-view mirror. His long, blond hair looked too messy and knotty, because of the open window. Actually, it got all entangled, but he didn't look that bad. You couldn't really call it a bad hair-day. Hailey was glad her hair wasn't that long, because brushing it might be a problem in situations like this._

_'Yeah, sure. Good for you, dad. Don't pay any attention at where you're driving, 'cause that's not important at all. It's his and Mia's fault if we have a car-accident. And with my luck, I won't be surprised if that happens,' Hailey thought, sarcastically._

_As you could all tell already, Hailey was not really in a good mood today. No wonder, though, seeing as what had happened earlier this week... _

_"Don't you worry, we're almost there, dear," her dad said, assuring the little girl._

_Man, Hailey really couldn't wait for that moment to come. This whole summer vacation was great, really, but the times she was in the car with a sick and whining Mia next to her...that was just the worst part of the whole summer._

_She wished she was somewhere else now. On a beautiful tropical island, or something. The wind would play with her long hair strings, while she would hear the calming sound of the sea and some birds singing on the background, blending together in a sweet and harmonic melody (okay, maybe she had watched too many of those programs on Discovery Channel)...and not her vomiting little sister instead, who was besmirching the car._

_They had visited her uncle this summer. He had once lived in the beautiful Radiant Garden, before that world was covered in Darkness. Now, they had chosen to go to Twilight Town. Her uncle was very smart and funny, just like Hailey's dad. And he loved sea-salt ice cream, just like Hailey did (maybe it was a family thing). They had a lot in common._

_As of lately, he had started his old study again. Something with hearts and Darkness. He had told her something about it. She had really enjoyed it, although it sounded much like a fairytale. She didn't only like it because it was her favourite uncle, but also because it really was interesting. Well, he was the only uncle Hailey had, actually. Anyways, he had six apprentices. They had all unusual names, like Braig, Dilan, Ienzo, Even, Eleus, and another one, whose name she didn't remember right now._

_One of his apprentices was kinda scary. He always had a quite scary smirk on his scary face, like he was up to no good. Such an annoying person. He was acting all the time like Hailey knew nothing and he and her uncle had many secrets. And then the way he looked at her; he looked far too long at her legs and her...other...assets, for a lack of a better word. Hailey shivered at that memory._

_'What was the name of that jerk again? Xen... no Xehan-something. Ah, never mind. It was a stupid and impossible name, anyways. Just like his attitude and his stupid cocky and evil grin.'_

_Hailey looked through the windscreen. It had started to rain and there were many water drops on the window now, some of them moving downwards, slightly blocking her view that way._

_'Ugh, great! Just what I needed. At least it's not storming...yet.'_

_She chose to look outside through the windshield this time. By the two white lamps that got closer and closer, she could tell that a ghost rider was coming nearer and nearer. He didn't slow down at all, either._

_'Oh great, a ghost rider. Stupid guy, doesn't even know which way to dri-'_

_Then she realized with a start what she was seeing._

_"DAD, WATCH OUT! A GHOST RIDER!" Hailey yelled, already starting to panic._

_It was strange, because the fate of four people were in the hands of her father now. But she was too late. From that point, everything happened in slowmotion, but at a very fast pace, in the same time. The last thing she saw was the nearing car, that was too close. She heard her mum screaming Dad's name. Then a loud BANG! And everything went black..._

_Suddenly she had the feeling that she was flying. She could feel the wind around her body, whipping at her clothes, too. She tried to open her eyes, but it was no use. She kept trying, but gave up after a while, when she realized that it was of no use._

_'How strange... Am I dreaming...or not? And which part...is the dream?' she thought confused, as she now felt like she was drowning in a deep, deep ocean._

_Sinking deeper into black nothingness..._

* * *

In the mean time, three teens, one girl and two boys, were contently sitting on a big paopu tree that bent - and still grew - towards the enormous ocean. They were looking out at the horizon that was far away from Destiny Islands, not really seeing anything, because they were in deep thought about some thing or another. Neither one of them said anything, but that wasn't needed here, because they all knew what they were thinking. Words weren't needed this time.

The boy that was sitting in the middle, was a handsome boy with long, silvery hair that shone slightly in the setting sun. He was leaning on his left arm as not to lose his balance. His right hand was placed lightly on his right knee.

The boy on his right, a brunet with hair that defied gravity and eyes that matched the sky on a warm, cloudless summer day, was mirroring his position, while the girl, an incredibly pretty redhead with a soft pink outfit and shoulder-length hair that caressed her shoulders, held her hands in her neatly lap. Her feet were dangling off the edge of the tree trunk and her eyes were fixated on the sky.

The air smelled like the salty sea, fish, fragrant flowers, and a lazy summer evening. It smelled exactly like home should smell, according to the three teenagers.

As Riku, the silverette boy, quietly watched the sea that reflected the beautiful orange and red-colored sun, he couldn't help but start to think about everything that had happened to him on his past journeys. He stared out at the horizon, barely noticing that the setting sun was almost blinding him. It didn't matter, though, because this time it was in a good way.

Riku had missed all of this. The tree, the sea, the sunset...his best friends...his family...the smell of home...the great life he had actually had here, before that terrible storm (too bad he hadn't realized that back then).

It was hard to believe that there really had been a time that he had wanted to get off this paradise, his home. How long ago had it been? Three years, he realized, with a start. Things had changed drastically since that very moment.

However, his thoughts were rudely interrupted when the other male teen suddenly said something out of the blue.

"I'm so bored that I'm afraid that my brains cells are disappearing. Aren't you guys?" Sora asked, sighing once again.

Riku wanted to give him a sharp response, but instead, he went for the simple, "What exactly do mean, that we're bored, or that we're afraid that our brains cells will disappear?"

"Oh haha, Riku. What do _you_ think?" Sora replied, slightly louder now.

The young wielder of the Keyblade probably wasn't aware of it himself, but at the moment, he was pouting, which made him look adorable, and much younger than he actually was. Riku opened his mouth to tease his best friend once again, because that never got boring, but the girl, Kairi, beat him to the punch this time.

"Sora's right, though. Maybe we should get a new hobby, or something now that the worlds are pretty much saved from all those Heartless and Nobodies," Kairi responded, before the two would start bickering once again.

"Well, why don't you? I play the guitar and drums already and I can't say I'm _that_ bored," Riku said, giving Kairi a sidelong glance.

"You know Kairi, he has a point...as always," Sora noted.

Kairi said nothing this time. Riku did not admit she was right, too, though. As busy as his life was now, he too was getting quickly bored on the Islands by every minute that passed with doing nothing. Nothing had happened since they had received the letter from the King. Of course, Riku wasn't hoping for the worlds to be in trouble once again, but, it would take some of his boredness away...

King Mickey had said something might be happening these days. Something big. But nothing had happened yet. Maybe he was wrong, probably for the very first time in his life. Maybe nothing would happen. Maybe...maybe Riku was brooding too much. Well, someone had to do it, since Sora obviously didn't and Kairi was too much in love with one of her friends to brood right now.

To be honest, Riku still had to get used to the fact that Sora and Kairi were kind of dating each other now, or rather, the fact that they weren't playing around the bush anymore.

Sure, he had been the one to tell Sora to finally "Kiss the girl, already, dammit!" because if he didn't, then nothing would ever happen between them.

Honestly, Sora could be so _unbelievably_ dense sometimes. He knew that more than anyone, since they had been friends before they could even talk.

This had caused both of them to blush furiously and snap out at him (not that he cared. He was more amused by it than hurt), and at last, from one thing came the other. Now, Riku was pretty much feeling like the fifth wheel, since he was the only one in their group that was still single.

He wondered when he would find someone to share a Paopu with. He didn't really hang out with any girls, except from Kairi, and in the past Hailey and Naminé. But Naminé was out of the picture now, and Hailey...well, she had to be here somewhere, right? Unless she had moved away again. Riku knew that that girl didn't like to stay too long at one place.

Suddenly, Riku saw a huge thing in the air falling down, right into the sea. At once, he forgot what he was thinking about. It looked like a falling comet, or a falling star. Whatever it was, it had to be very heavy, because it brought gigantic waves with it. The sea had never looked this dangerous before.

Riku pointed to the thing and shouted, "Guys, look!"

Sora saw it right in time, before it hit the sea with a huge speed and then disappeared into the deep depths of the ocean.

"Maybe that's what the king was talking about! Let's go and check it out!" Sora cried, at once getting up on his feet again.

Riku and Kairi followed suit and they started running toward the water.

* * *

"Wow!"

Hailey gasped. She quickly opened her dark eyes and swiftly sat up. Thank heavens she appeared to be safe and well, in a soft and rather comfortable bed. Where had this bed suddenly come from?

_That was a very scary dream. It looked so real, almost as though it was happening all over again... Wait a minute! What am I doing here? Whose bed is this? Where the hell am I? How did I get here? What's happening? Why am I asking questions - from which I don't know the answer of anyway - to myself?_

She looked around, searching for certain clues that would give away where she was. She was in a big bedroom. The wallpaper was blue with little silver stars on it. There was a wooden wardrobe and a desk against the opposite wall. The floor was from the same material, but it also had a light blue and soft-looking carpet on it. That one was definitely a bonus. She looked at the alarm clock standing on the night table, next to her. It was four o'clock pm. No wonder she was hungry.

_This doesn't look familiar at all. Something is terribly wrong. What's going on here?_ she thought, as she walked toward the open window and looked through it to see what was happening outside this house.

The sun shined right in her face and warmed her skin slightly. The wind played with her long hair strings. The air smelled like freshly cut grass and some sweet-smelling flowers, along with that specialy salty smell you could smell on the beach. It didn't look all that bad here. She could even hear the calming sound of the sea and some singing birds on the background. So she really was near the sea. Did that mean that-

"Ah Hailey, you're finally awake, I see?" a soft, but sweet sounding female voice said.

Surprised, and slightly startled, Hailey turned around to look at the owner of the voice.

_Huh?_

It was a woman with long, blond hair and bright blue eyes. Hailey couldn't see her face that good, because she stood in the shadow, but she had a feeling that she knew this woman. Hailey was sure of it, but she couldn't quite place her finger on when and where exactly she had met her.

So she asked her the only question she could think of at the moment, "I'm sorry but, who are you?"

Riku, Sora and Kairi went to look for the mysterious thing. They looked and searched everywhere on the beach, but they couldn't find it. It was almost like there had never fallen something in the sea at all. The only thing they found was something that appeared to be a beautiful golden necklace with a golden heart pendant attached on it.

"I wonder whose necklace this is. She's got a good taste," Riku noted after a short while, holding the light thing up in the air to inspect it in the sunlight. "It looks pretty familiar, too. I think I've seen it somewhere before."

Kairi arched a brow. This new fact had quite surprised her.

"You have? Where?" Kairi asked, curiously, stepping closer to him.

"I...can't remember," Riku admitted, letting out a light, but quite frustrated sigh.

He ran a hand through his long, silky smooth hair. Surely, he had accepted all those gaps that were here and there in his memories, but did it have to be about this, too?

"Hey, how do you know it's a 'she'? Maybe it's from a boy," Sora asked.

Riku gave him a flat look, wondering if he was kidding or not, because with Sora, one could never be too sure.

"Are you serious? Dude, would _you_ wear something like this? 'Cause I wouldn't."

Kairi giggled at that. Indeed, it was hard to imagine Riku with blingbling around his neck. Somehow, it was easier with Sora.

"Well, only if it's a present from Kairi!" Sora said, defending himself, but Riku could by his blush that he was slightly embarrassed.

Kairi, however, saw something completely different in Sora.

"Oh, your _so_ sweet!" Kairi said, practically squealing.

She hugged Sora before he could prepare himself for it, knocking all the air out of his lungs and almost making him lose his balance, too. He managed to keep it, though.

"Kairi...can't...breathe," Sora huffed, even though a smile was plastered on his face.

"Whoops, sorry," Kairi mumbled, withdrawing swiftly again.

Riku rolled his eyes and sighed, as he always did when such a "cute" thing happened, and it happened a little _too_ often for his likings lately.

"Let's pretend I haven't heard nor seen all of this," Riku muttered darkly under his breath, not looking at the two.

"Someone is grumpy," Kairi noted, giggling.

"Am not," Riku said, defending himself.

"Are too," Sora cried.

Riku's mind was already elsewhere, though, so he didn't even react on that. He looked thoughtfully at the necklace. It just had to be a girl's. Someone he had met before. He was sure of it, because that was what his heart told him. But...then why didn't he remember?

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! :) Was it good? Bad? So-so? Reviews are welcome. ^_^ ****Oh, and sorry for the POV changes, I know it's kinda confusing, but that'll change, because I'm working on it.**


	3. II The School Day

**A/N: ****Thanks: IchiNukeChuu and .SchizophrenicArtlessness.13, for beta reading! ****Enjoy reading. ^-^**

* * *

"Who am I? Hailey, did you forget about me that soon?" she asked, raising her eyebrows incredulously at her.

The woman had hardly said that, when Hailey remembered everything again. It had all started with what she was dreaming before. It wasn't just one of her worst nightmares; it was one of her worst _memories._ Something that was so horrible that she still couldn't believe that it really had happened. Unfortunately, though, it really _had_ happened.

Her parents and her sister Mia had died in that same car-accident. Hailey was the only one who had survived that accident with the ghost rider. Her uncle, Ansem the Wise, or DiZ, which was how he called himself lately, had taken care of her for almost a year. Naminé and another guy, who was, strangely enough, also called Ansem, had helped her, too. DiZ had told Hailey once that his wife had died, but now she was standing there in front of her. How was that even possible, if she wasn't just dreaming? Was she a ghost?

"Aunt Veronica? You're still alive? But… I thought you were dead! How..." At this point, Hailey's voice faltered.

"Your uncle thought I was dead, but as you can see, I'm still breathing. I was just hiding for The Organization, that's all. They were after me, because of your uncle. I happened to know their Somebodies personally. The day before your uncle...died, he heard I was still alive. So he sent you to my house when you were asleep. He knew you would be safe here with me, on Destiny Islands, because he had sent Kairi here too back then, when she was four years. Naminé and another mysterious guy in black brought you here. At first, I thought he was with the Organization because of his cloak, but then I saw he was Okay. In fact, he was quite a gentleman."

That was that Ansem-guy, for sure. Strange, yet somehow still quite the ladies' man. Why did he have the same name as her uncle had? Hailey wonder what happened to him.

"You've been sleeping here for a few days now," her aunt continued, "Ansem, my dear husband, is probably dead. I miss him…so much."

"I'm so sorry," Hailey whispered, not trusting her voice.

"No, it's not your fault!"

Hailey only shook her head, staying silent this time. Truth was, she missed her uncle, too.

"I guess you're hungry now, huh?" aunt Veronica asked.

As if on cue, Hailey's stomach started to growl. Hailey blushed slightly, laughing quietly.

"I think I'm starving," she replied, resting her right hand on her stomach.

"Good, I made some tripple chocolate cheesecake. Let's go to the kitchen, shall we?" the woman said.

Hailey smiled, nodding.

* * *

The rest of the day, Hailey decided to explore the islands a little bit. Her aunt's house had a huge garden with beautiful flowers and trees with pink blossoms. The house was very big, too, actually far too big for one person. It didn't look that big from the outside, though.

Aunt Veronica had said that she didn't use most of the rooms, and she didn't really get any visitors. Hailey could chose her own bedroom, and she had picked the room she had woken up in. After all, that room had the best view out of all of them, and it was fairly big, too.

Hailey was wondering what her new school would look like. It was probably not _that_ big, since the Islands were pretty small and didn't have that many inhabitants.

She had gone shopping and there was one thing she had noticed. At first, people were treating normally, but after a short while, everybody had looked kind of strangely at her, like she attracted very much attention. Or maybe she just had a strange accent, according to them. Well, she hadn't chosen for this, but she wouldn't give up that soon, only because of the staring people. They had been staring as if they had never seen a girl before. Hailey just had ignored them.

Then the bell rang, interrupting her train of thoughts.

"Hailey! It's the post. I think they have brought your books and school uniform! That's pretty fast, isn't it? Could you open the door and accept the package, please? I've got my hands full at the moment," aunt Veronica called.

The woman was currently in the kitchen, cooking a meal for both of them.

"Okay, sure, auntie."

Hailey walked to the door and opened it. A rather cute boy with unruly blond hair and cerulean-colored eyes was standing there, looking at her. Surprise was written on his face, probably because he had expected aunt Veronica to open the door.

"Oh...uh, hi there. So the school uniform and books were for you?" he asked, smiling.

She nodded, not really knowing what else to say or to do.

"Ah. Okay. So... I guess you're new around here? 'Cause now that I think of it, I've never seen you here before."

She nodded once again and said, "Yeah."

"Oh cool. What's your name?" he asked, surprisingly enthusiastic now.

She actually wasn't used to enthousiastic people, but it sure was nice for a change.

"It's Hailey. And yours?"

"I'm Tidus. Welcome to Destiny Islands. The people here are very nice to almost everyone, and this place is beautiful. I think you're gonna like it here."

"Well, I hope so," was the only thing she could say.

"I know you will."

She smiled at him. Being so often in a stuffy old mansion almost made you forget how fun it was to actually be around people.

"Ehm...okay?"

He sure was nice and at least he wasn't staring at her like those other people.

"Well. It was nice meeting you, but I really gotta go now, 'cause diner's probably ready. My mom would kill me if I dared to come home any later. So see ya tomorrow. And if you like... I could show you round the school?"

_Well, duhuh. Like somebody would or even could say no to him. Besides, he's pretty much the only person I know here_, she thought.

"Yeah, sure. I would really like that. And it was nice meeting you, too. Bye, Tidus."

He waved and smiled one more time, before he went to his own house. Hailey sighed happily and shut the door.

_Well, at least I know someone here. Man, I totally forgot about school today. What if I stammer all the time, or something like that? Or if nobody understands me, because of my "strange" accent. That is possible, right? And what if I get lost? That would be so embarrassing. And what if nobody likes me? What if I only have the bad, mean and boring teachers? Because with my luck, there are just so many things that can go wrong in one day. Maybe I should stop thinking about it, 'cause it'll only make me more nervous._

"Hailey, diner's ready!" her aunt called.

"I'm coming!" she cried.

A smile appeared on her young face. She could still remember how delicious her aunt's meals were, especially her desserts. Like she was going to say no to that.

* * *

It was night. Hailey's bedroom had a beautiful sight on the sea. It was a clear night. The soft light of the moon invaded the room via the windows, illuminating the whole area that was now basking in an almost holy silver light. She could see many stars, twinkling in the sky high above.

The sunset had been amazing, too, but she hadn't dared to go outside to the beach to see it yet, because of all the staring people. Maybe there hadn't been that many at all, but it sure did feel like everyone was staring at her as soon as she showed up somewhere.

_I don't understand them. Why are they wasting their time by staring at me like that all the time? I'm not that interesting...or so I thought. I'm not even that beautiful._

She thought about today, when a certain boy was cycling. He was staring intensely at her all the time, so he bumped against a streetlamp that he hadn't seen. She chuckled.

_Poor guy. Well, he did ask for it. That's what you get when you stare at me. Well, he's lucky that he didn't break any bones. Hmm... I think I really should go to sleep now, or else I won't wake up tomorrow and then I'll be late for school._

She really hoped she hadn't missed that much during the one year where she had missed school.

Thank heavens the bed was quite comfortable, so she wouldn't toss and turn the whole night, like she would usually do. She also wouldn't fall asleep during a class that way.

After a while, she fell into a peaceful and dreamless slumber, not waking up for the rest of the night.

* * *

The next day she woke up quite early in the morning. Maybe it was because she was used to it. Perhaps it had something to do with the rays of sun that invaded her new bedroom, along with the birds that sang their beautiful song, creating a merry melody.

Hailey loved waking up this way, instead of getting up by the always annoying beeping sounds that her alarm clock made, most likely against her own will. She wanted to look good and make a perfect start. After all, it was her very first day on a new school, in a whole new world.

She glanced over to the alarm clock. It said it was 6:30am. The sun shined through the window, but it was such a pity that she couldn't hear the sea right now, because of the singing birds.

After deciding that she wouldn't fall asleep anymore (as if that was possible in/for only 30 minutes), she got up and stretched.

_Let the day begin_, she thought, noticing that she was in a fairly good mood.

Hailey did her daily morning routine (such as brushing her teeth, taking a shower, combing her hair, putting on some makeup) and after that, she put her new school uniform on. It had a plain, white top, a blue skirt, a matching tie, black stockings, a brown schoolbag, along with black boots.

The school uniform was okay. She liked the color blue, but the boots weren't really her taste. That, and the fact that they made her feet look really big compared with the rest of her body, was a huge turn-off for her. But what to do about it?

Walking downstairs to the kitchen, she saw that her aunt was awake already, preparing lunch for herself to bring it with her to work.

"Goodmorning, Hailey," she greeted the girl in a cheerful tone.

Her back was still turned towards Hailey.

"Goodmorning," Hailey replied, politely.

"Did you sleep well?"

"Yes, I did, thanks."

It took a short while for her aunt to say something again, but when she did, it was, "Good. I made you some breakfast, by the way. Bon appetit."

The table full with packs of cornflakes, milk, honey, milk, eggs, toast, and other things she liked, hadn't gone unnoticed by the teen. She walked towards it and decided to sit on the nearest chair.

"Thanks!"

"You're very welcome, Hailey."

Hailey let her eyes wander through the kitchen randomly as she began to eat her eggs and toast. She had never been here before. The kitchen looked very cozy. The wooden table and cabinets gleamed almost cheerfully in the sunlight, just like the black and white floor. Everything looked so clean. Unnaturally clean. Far too clean in her opinion, but that was probably because she was too used to the mansion with spider webs everywhere. This surely was a nice change.

* * *

After her delicious breakfast, made by her aunt, she looked into the mirror for the fifth time that day, checking if her hair was okay and such. At least she didn't have a bad hair-day, which was probably a good sign. It was about time, too.

She closed the front door behind her, not locking it yet since her aunt was still inside the house. The wind played with the locks of her long black hair, just like they had done with her father's hair more than a year ago...

Hailey swiftly banned that awkward thought from her head and decided to concentrate on something else instead. Something positive that wouldn't ruin her current mood.

She really enjoyed being outside, just walking in the sun and listening to the song of the birds, while having no worries and almost nothing on her mind anymore...or should she say yet? Maybe it wasn't that bad here. Maybe she would even like it here and maybe she would make some good friends, too... eventually and if she was that lucky.

"Hailey!" someone behind her called out of the blue, just when she was about to reprimand herself, and tell herself not to thing such negative thoughts all the time. "Hailey! Hey, wait up!" called the familiar voice again.

Wow, not even a day had passed since she had arrived here and everybody already knew her name? That sure was fast! she thought, surprised. Or maybe it was because it was a small world?

She turned around to see who it was. It was a boy with messy dark blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a school uniform too, but it looked slightly different from hers. He had black pants and long slaves, rolled up till his elbows. It took a while for Hailey to recognize him, because she wasn't used to see him in a uniform, but when she did, she started to smile brightly.

"Oh, hey, Tidus."

It was a good thing that she still remembered his rather unusual name, too.

"Hi. So uhm…"

Tidus stopped talking altogether, as if he was looking for what he should say next. Hailey looked at him with a questioning look and waited until he said something again. Why was he so shy all of a sudden? He wasn't yesterday. Then he talked to her like she had been one of his best friends.

"Yes?" Hailey asked patiently, nodding encouragingly at him to continue.

"Wanna walk together?"

That had been all he wanted to ask? Then why the sudden shyness and nerves? Boys were really strange sometimes...

"Sure," she smiled, nodding.

"Ah, nice!"

They continued walking next to each other, but in silence. Hailey looked at all the cute-looking houses they walked past. All of them were made in the same fashion, so there weren't big differences between them.

She really was glad that she had some company from someone she already knew...kind of. It made her way to school a little less awkward. She didn't know how she was going to break this rather uneasy silence, though.

"You know, you do look pretty...cute in these clothes," Tidus said all of a sudden. "Just saying."

She looked surprised up at him. She could see how he started to blush slightly.

'Aaaw, he looks so cute when he's blushing,' she thought.

"Thanks... Well, so do you," Hailey replied, already feeling how her cheeks were getting slightly warm, too.

Okay, who was she kidding? She was probably as red as a tomato by now. Thank heavens Tidus didn't say anything of it if that was the case.

_Oh, not now!_

She quickly changed the subject and talked about her hobbies instead (reading, drawing, playing the piano, shopping, hanging around with her friends. Not that she had them yet).

"Wow, that's quite interesting. I think a lot of people want you as their friend...or as their girl," Tidus noted and smiled a little.

Hailey smiled back and thought, _Stop blushing for once!_

She hated it how that happened whenever she was in situations like this. Pretending to brush her bangs out of her face, she quickly felt her cheeks with the palm of her hands. They were warm indeed, but not too much. Hailey sighed relieved at that.

The closer they got to her new school, the livelier the area was getting. It was almost as if the school contained the only source of life of the Islands, mostly showing teenagers. Some of them were of her age, some of them slightly younger or older. It was hard to see sometimes.

Tidus seemed to know everyone they saw, because as soon as they would pass someone, he would say things like, "Hey!" or "How's your sister doing now?"

Those people said "Hi" too and answered Tidus' question, but the annoying thing was that they all looked in a strange way at Hailey, probably wondering who she was since they had never seen her before.

_Ugh, here we go again. How long do they have to look at me like that? I hope they won't do that at school, although it won't surprise me if they do. After all, I'm "the new one",_ she thought, getting quite nervous by that thought.

This made her wonder if they would prank new people, too. She really hoped they wouldn't because she hadn't brought any spare clothes with her. That, and she hated pranks...unless it happened to someone else. But wasn't everyone like that?

"I think that they think that you're my girlfriend, or something," Tidus noted, albeit happier than he should be.

Hailey didn't know if she should be happy with that little piece of information or not, so she just said, "Oh..."

Then, they finally arrived at their destination. By now, the cute houses had made place for a huge, orange and blue-colored building to which lots of teens were heading to. Hailey's mouth dropped open by the sight of her new school. This was the last thing she had expected to see, and then the colors...

"Welcome to Destiny Islands College, Hailey," Tidus said.

Hailey still said nothing. She was far too impressed by what she saw.

"Whoa," she whispered, speechless.

At this point, she was completely dazed. How was she supposed to find her way in here? By the looks of it, that was almost...impossible. The school really was huge. It had four floors and a bridge that connected two buildings together. She did hope there was an elevator. Preferably one that could be used by students, too, because running up and down all those stairs wasn't going to make her any happier.

How was she going to find the entrance back again? It felt much like walking into a prison, while you know you would never get back home again, because by the time you had found the entrance again, you were forty-something years old.

* * *

**A/N: ****Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! =)**


	4. III A Little Lost

**A/N: Thanks: Kai Saitou and .SchizophrenicArtlessness.13, for beta reading this chapter.**

* * *

Tidus looked at Hailey and saw that she was very impressed. He smiled a small smile, remembering very well how it had felt for him when he had stood here for the very first time.

"Hey, I know that it sounds quite unbelievable, but don't worry too much. You'll get used to it soon, really. Just like I did."

Oh, would she? Really?

"Hmm... I really hope so."

She wasn't quite sure of that, but she didn't say it out loud. How stupid would that sound?

"Come on, let's go inside. It's even more impressive in there," he said.

He walked to the doors in a confident manner. Hailey quickly followed him, since she didn't want to get lost on her first day here. He opened the doors for Hailey and motioned for her to go first.

"Thank you," Hailey said, smiling at him.

He sure was a gentleman. Unfortunately, she hadn't met many people like him.

"No problem, Hailey."

Tidus swiftly followed her as soon as she got inside.

She did hope that she would get a locker soon. She didn't want to walk with a heavy bag every day, since that wasn't good for her back at all. Hailey looked around. The floor had a color between light brown and yellow, and the lockers had the same color as her tie had; dark blue.

"Well, see you around, Hailey!" Tidus suddenly said and he started to run away from her.

Hailey arched a brow at that. She would take back her words of calling him a gentleman. He sure had a lot to learn.

_Yeah, thanks a lot, Tidus. Leaving me here behind, without even telling me where I'm supposed to go. It looks like every boy is the same. It doesn't even matter in which world they live or how old they are, they're all just a bunch of immature kids, she thought_, sarcastically.

The school was getting livelier with every second as more and more people entered the building. The students that Hailey saw, were all far too busy to pay any attention to her. Not that she was complaining.

The most of them put the books they needed for the first classes in their bag, or they decorated their locker with new photos and other interesting stuff they got from their summer vacation, removing some older stuff that they didn't find that cool or entertaining anymore. Some of them had probably pictures of their new crushes, too.

Some of the students were talking about their summer vacation and what they had done. It seemed that the most of them just had gone to the beach with their friends.

"Oh, I don't want to go to school yet. It was so good to spend your whole summer vacation doing nothing but going to the beach and swimming, without any homework, or angry teachers, or stupid projects. Look, I even got a tan!" one girl with a rather high-pitched voice exclaimed.

Hailey turned her attention to that conversation. The girl had light brown hair, from which the ends of it curled upwards.

"Well, I got burned, man. I didn't even know that was possible, since I have a darker skin. I never burn in the sun!" a boy with flaming orange-colored hair replied.

"You did now, and it's pretty much your own fault. If you hadn't fallen asleep, then nothing would've happened to you," the girl said again.

Hailey could now see that she had brilliant emerald green eyes.

"You could've woken me up, ya!"

"Nah...that would've cost me too much energy," she said, probably half-jokingly.

The boy huffed at that, making fists of his hands. The girl didn't seem to see that, as she was too busy with decorating her locker.

Other people were searching their class. They slipped on the smooth and shining floor and some of them even fell over. Then they quickly got up and continued walking, hoping that nobody saw their first blooper of this year. But now they were walking more carefully than first.

As Hailey walked past all those students, only spotting unfamiliar faces everywhere she looked, she could hear clearly what they were talking about.

It looked like they were all talking about the same, because she kept hearing things like, "Oh, the new one, you mean? Yeah, I know. Everybody's talking about her, but I haven't even met her yet. Isn't that quite strange?"

"Nor did I. I wonder how she is like, though."

"Yeah, me too. I guess we'll find out very soon enough. At least, if she shows up. It wouldn't surprise me if she was too late for her first class."

"Yeah. You must be right, dude."

"Duh, I'm always right."

Hailey rolled her eyes by that statement. Why, overconfident?

She heard another exchanging of words, again about the same subject, "Oh, I guess something cool is going to happen these days. I really want to meet her. Maybe she's very hot, you know."

"Maybe you'll have a class with her, Casanova."

"Hmm…if I'm that lucky. I mean, maybe she'll fall for Riku, like all girls seem to do lately. I just can't believe it. How can a guy show up again after three years and be so different?"

"Relax! She won't fall for him if she sees you first. Come on, you're charming too. The girls still all love you, you shouldn't forget that. Just because some new guy decides to show up, doesn't mean you become immediately less popular than him."

"Hmm... I guess you're right...somewhere..."

Hailey chuckled at that. Some people were worried about the strangest things. Especially guys, it seemed. All worried about their image and what not. It seemed so trivial to her.

Okay, now she really began to wonder who they were talking about. Were they talking about her? Probably, but nobody had noticed her yet. They were all too busy with their own business. So now she could give them all a good look, without getting weird looks in return, which was honestly nice for a change.

She still had no idea where to go now, though. So now she had to ask for someone's help. Hailey looked around, searching for someone that wouldn't try to fool her, or something. She spotted a group of students, not too far away from her. They were talking about one thing or another. She couldn't hear what, though. The group consisted of three girls and four boys. They all looked older than her, and they were taller than her, too. For the first time in her life, she wished she was a few inches taller. At least that would make her feel more comfortable about herself.

_Okay, don't panic please. Everything is going to be okay. I'm just lost and that's very normal for a new girl. It's not my fault that this school building is so huge. Gosh, this is still so embarrassing_, she thought, gulping.

She stepped towards them, and after gathering all her courage, she started to speak. Her voice always sounded slightly lighter when she was nervous.

"Um...excuse me," Hailey said, politely.

They all turned around immediately to look at her. Was it just her, or did they really look annoyed? Almost as if they wanted to start yell at her for interrupting them. Hailey was about to continue, but someone out of that group beat her to the punch this time.

"What do you want?" a boy asked in a not very nice way.

He was frowning, too. Okay, it was clear. It wasn't just her.

_Wow, excuse me! Someone's not a morning person._

At once, another boy from that same group glared at him for being so blunt, and said, "Hey! Don't act like you're better than her! Because you certainly aren't!"

The other people in the group snickered at that. Hailey looked thankfully up at him. He had the same color hair as the floor; brown. She could see that he wore a necklace with a crown pendant attached on it. Wait a second...

"Need some help?" he asked, turning his attention towards Hailey.

She smiled and immediately forgot about what she was thinking at first. Talk about manners. You didn't see that very often. How do some people know when you need help? It's almost scary, like they can read your mind, or something.

Hailey could tell from the way that his baby blue eyes were inspecting her that he was very curious about her. But he looked okay enough, so she decided to trust him. He did remind her of someone she had met a year ago...

Roxas maybe? Yes, his eyes and his face were pretty much the same, but the hair was slightly different, yet still very spiky.

"Um...yes, I do. Do you know where I can find the high school office?"

"The high school office?" he repeated, scratching the back of his head. "Oh, you just go down the stairs overthere. Then you go left and turn to the right after the canteen and biology classrooms and then you've arrived. Got it?"

"Uhm…"

No, not really. How was she supposed to know where the biology classrooms were when the doors were still closed? Unless there were signs there that indicated which room was used for which subject...

The boy could tell from Hailey's face that she didn't quite get it, so he said with another warm smile of his, "Hey, how about you just follow me? I'll take you to the office. That's much easier for you. I mean, if you don't mind, that is..."

She wondered briefly why in the world's name she would mind that, before nodding.

"That would be great. Thank you very much!" Hailey said, more relieved than ever.

"You're very welcome. It's the least I can do. Well, let's go."

Hailey smiled at him. The boy smiled back, as they continued walking, Hailey following him close behind. The boy ignored all the staring he caused, or maybe he didn't really see it. Either way, Hailey was glad with the way he reacted on it; calmly.

See, not all teens are dangerous monsters, ready to bite one's head off. It was just a matter of staying polite.

There was something about the boy's rather goofy smile, though. It was almost as if it was contagious, but not particularly in a bad way. In fact, she kind of liked it. The boy put his hands behind his head.

"I hope Brandon didn't hurt you. He's such a jerk sometimes. So I'm sorry for that," he said.

Hailey lifted a brow at that. What did he apologize for?

"What for? It's not your fault."

"I know, but he won't say sorry. So I'll do it for him," he smiled, his cerulean eyes shimmering brighter than ever.

Aw, how sweet was that? A little _too_ sweet in her opinion, but still...

"Nah...there's no need to be sorry. He didn't hurt me."

"Oh. Then it's okay." It stayed silent between them for a short while, until the boy asked again, "Hey, what's your name, by the way?"

"It's Hailey."

Nothing special.

"Hailey. Hmm…that name suits you."

It did? But how would he know? He didn't even know her.

"Uh… thanks... I think," she replied, giving him a sidelong glance.

"But that means you're new around here, aren't you?"

Man, what kind of a question was that? If she wouldn't be new here, then she would surely know where the high school office would be, now wouldn't she? And this boy would've known her, too, that's for sure. They probably would've been friends, too.

"Yeah," she nodded.

"Wow. You know, we don't get a lot of new students. My...uh...someone I know named Kairi was the last one who was new here and that was more than eleven years ago," he noticed, seeming to be impressed by this little fact.

"Oh."

She didn't really know what else to say.

She sensed that he looked a short moment at her, before he, almost carefully, continued with, "So I guess you'll be the talk of the day."

"Aha."

Now that was just great. There went her idea of not being noticed at all. That meant everyone already knew about her existence. How wonderful. Hailey decided to change the subject, before the boy would ask her more about her life and past and where she came from. That was one of the last things she wanted to discuss with a complete stranger. A nice stranger, she had to give him that, but who knew what kind of weirdo he was? She'd better be careful around people she didn't know.

"And what's your name?" she asked, to break the forming silence.

"Oh, it's Sora. It's nice to meet you, Hailey," he said with the biggest smile he had.

His smile made Hailey smile, too. She wanted to say the same about him, when she heard someone else coming nearer and nearer.

"Sora! There you are," a girl with a high voice exclaimed.

Both Hailey and Sora turned towards the source of the sound. The girl that was approaching them had dark red hair and about the same shade of blue eyes as Sora had. Thanks to her rather unusual hair color it made her look very pretty. She was also wearing the same clothes as Hailey, so she was a student.

She ran from the other side of the hallway toward the boy, as fast as she could. Her hair seemed to float directly behind her, causing a slowmotion effect on her. She grabbed immediately his hand, as if she was afraid that he would immediately run away from her when he had the chance to. All in all, Hailey had a little trouble to hide the smile on her face as soon as she realized that.

_Wow, someone's a little possessive, huh?_ she thought, amused.

"I was so worried when I couldn't find you. What are you doing here?" she almost-whined, but it didn't look annoying on her.

"Well, what about you? What are _you_ doing here? I thought you were supposed to be in class?" he said jokingly, but Hailey knew that he was being serious, too.

It was pretty easy to see that these two liked each other very, very much. It was cute.

The beautiful girl smiled, showing perfectly straight and white teeth, but she didn't bother to answer his question. Then she finally spotted Hailey, who was still standing next to Sora, looking from him to the girl.

Hailey smiled at her, but her smile froze on her face when the girl didn't smile back at. There was something in her eyes that gave Hailey a dull yet alarmed feeling, telling her to stay far away from her. What was it that they said about redheads again? That they could get very aggressive, or something?

"Sora...who is this?" she asked, rather curiously.

However, there was something else in the edge of her voice which gave Hailey goosebumps.

"Oh, this is Hailey. She's new here. I was just bringing Hailey to the office, because she couldn't find it, that's all. Why...is there something wrong?"

She looked more thoroughly at Hailey again, now with a light frown on her face and her eyes slightly squinted. It gave Hailey a rather uneasy feeling.

Sora saw the way the girl was looking at her and said quickly, "Kai, leave her alone. And why don't you answer my question? What are you doing here?"

"I was just…well…you know."

"No, I don't. Why don't you explain it to me?" he asked stubbornly.

Hailey now felt completely out of place in the scene, being in the middle of a starting heated argument between two lovers...and that early in the morning, too.

_Wow, did I just cause so many problems in such a short amount of time? Unbelievable. Time to set things straight._

"Eh... I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I didn't do anything. What he said was right. This is all just a mistake. It's my fault," Hailey said, when someone else interrupted her.

No, it wasn't Kairi this time.

"Well, well. If that isn't the new girl Hailey."

_Wow, people I don't know at all keep calling for me today. What is this?_

Hailey turned around to see who it was. Her dark eyes widened and she nearly got a heart-attack when she saw him standing there, the worst part of her worst nightmare - no, _memory! _It seemed that some people never died, no matter how much they deserved to die.

"You!" she yelled shocked.

She looked like that person had slapped her twice without any reason.

"I beg your pardon?" the man said, smirking and rising an eyebrow at her comment. He had long, silver hair and evil, orange eyes. "Causing trouble on her first day already? That must be a record, even for you. I want you to come with me. Whether you want to or not."

"Don't act like you know me at all, Xehanort! How dare you even speak to me, after you killed my family? What the hell are you doing here, anyway? Scaring children? That's low, even for you."

Sora and Kairi were looking strangely at her, probably wondering what the hell she was talking about. One couldn't blame them, since everyone would have looked strangely at her, if they would have yelled such a thing. However, Xehanort was the only one who noticed this, since Hailey was too busy with glaring daggers at him. Man, if glances could kill...

But why was it that her past kept chasing after her, never leaving her alone?

"Let's discuss this further in my office. You two, go and... do something. Aren't you two supposed to be in class, anyway?" Xehanort asked, giving both of them a stern look.

"Oh. Yes, we're already going, Sir. Well, see ya, Hailey," waved Sora with a small smile on his face.

His eyes looked worried, though. Hailey smiled at him to assure him she was okay and waved, too. Kairi ignored Hailey. Not that she cared anything about that right now. She had other things on her mind, so she ignored Kairi too.

If she would continue acting like an idiot and wouldn't change right in time, then she would lose Sora for sure. Maybe even sooner than she thinks. What an annoying girl. She didn't deserve Sora. Poor guy. What did he do wrong that this happened to him?

Kairi dragged Sora away from her and Xehanort, while whispering, "Come _on_, Sora. We don't want any more trouble than we already have, do we?"

* * *

**A/N: What'll happen next? You'll find out soon! ****Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. ^-^**


	5. IV An Old Enemy

**A/N: Thanks: AGCourtney, blackroseofdeath49 and CrystalEarth**

* * *

"Follow me. I'll give you your schedule," Xehanort said.

He slowly started to walk away, without turning around to see if Hailey was following. Apparently, he thought she would anyway, so she did follow him. But how she hated his cockiness. Always thinking he knew everything better. She hated such types.

Of course, Hailey didn't want to do this, but she knew that she had no choice, since she really wanted to know what the heck he was doing here on her school. It worried her that Sora called him "Sir," too. It was a sign of respect, which was the last thing this guy deserved in this world.

Maybe she would have a chance to kill him after he told her what he was up to. He'd better not be a teacher. Not that she thought he actually _could_ teach, no matter what education he had had in his past years (not that she didn't know which one that was, since it all started with that moment). He was far too scary, too. Children would only run away from him.

The ominous-sounding footsteps of them stopped when he had brought her to his office. He unlocked the door and opened it. Hailey wondered why he needed to lock it, as she looked around. Was he hiding something or was it just that he had just started his day? Even the dirty yellow-ish curtains in the room were closed to allow him to have more privacy. One thing became clear soon: the interior was boring, just like Xehanort himself. Why was she not surprised at all? The guy had become unpredictably predictable.

"Let me guess; you want me to explain everything to you, don't you?" he asked.

He was still smirking, looking creepier than ever. It was hard for her to control herself. Suddenly she had many thoughts of killing him and torturing him, right here, right now, as slow and inhumane as possible, since that was what he deserved. She was sure that nobody would mind if she did so. Everyone would probably enjoy it and join her as soon as they found out.

Trying to look as neutral as possible, she nodded quietly.

"You know, you do look attractive when you're mad..."

_I beg your pardon?_

She gasped and looked incredulously up at him, her eyes widened. That was just disgusting! He could be her dad for that matter! She hoped this was some kind of sick joke, or else...

"Anyway, you were right. I was the one who killed your parents and your sweet little sister. Mia was her name, right?"

Why did he call her name? He had no right not say Mia's name and act like he was all interested in her, too. Her heart started to beat faster.

"I did it because I was mad. Ansem, your uncle, forbid me to continue my study about darkness and hearts. Probably because he was jealous that I was better and smarter than him..."

That did it for her. She jumped up and aimed a punch at his face. Unfortunately for her, his reflexes were quicker. After all, he was a powerful bad guy. He grabbed her by her throat and pushed her hard against the wall. Her head collided against the wall with a hard thud.

He lifted her up a couple of inches, so her feet were dangling in the air. She could hardly breathe and gasped for breath, but he wouldn't let go of her. No matter what she did, she couldn't manage to push his hand away.

_Oh no. I'm suffocating!_ she thought, panicking even more.

"You know, Hailey, that's not very nice of you. Don't you do that ever again! I'm your headmaster now. So you should show some respect. I can kill you right now, if I want. But I won't, 'cause I've changed now. I'm a good guy, thanks to Sora and his friends. They were the one who gave me one last chance. I guess you're lucky."

He let go of her when she stars popped in her vision everywhere and she started to feel lightheaded. She fell on the floor, while she panted and grasped her throat. Breathing hurt. That would leave a couple of bruises.

"Do you want to hear my story now, without interrupting, or not?" he asked.

She nodded again, her hands still on her throat. She could still feel where his fingers had touched her skin.

"A couple of days later, after the accident, I heard you were still alive. How I searched for you... I couldn't find you anywhere. There was not even a trace. It was like you had completely disappeared. So I went searching for Ansem. I knew that he had all the answers. The members of the organization helped me too. But when I found him, I saw you weren't with him. Everything I did seemed to be all for nothing. But I was wrong again. I could have my old body back, because I fell in love. With you. I actually thought I was obsessed with you. You were the one who brought me back to the light again. And for that I want to thank you."

_What the-_

Suddenly Hailey noticed that he was getting closer and closer to her. Too close, far too close for comfort. He touched her arm lightly, sending shivers all up and down her spine. Her face was only inches away from his. Was he trying to kiss her? He was! What the hell was he thinking?

Hailey quickly jumped back, away from him. She gasped and was more than amazed. He looked disappointed and angry at the same time, but he tried to hide it.

"I thought you felt the same for me. And even if you don't, how am I supposed to thank you now?"

_Hell no, of course not. Let me kill you and then we're quits and then I can go to my class. And if you touch me again, I'll break your arm, you sick pervert!_

Not that she would stand a chance to him, but it was fun to rant at him in her head.

"Just...just give me my schedule. I-I'm very confused now. I'll have to think about all this," she lied, (hopefully convincingly).

Hah, not! Honestly, she'd rather die a very painful death than to start a relationship with a sick bastard like him.

"Hmm... Okay. But just let me know when you...you know... change your mind."

"I will," she nodded and she tried not to shiver at that thought.

"Here you are."

He handed Hailey her schedule, which Hailey swiftly took out of his hand. It seemed that he didn't want to let go of it first, but when she pulled at the piece of paper with more force, he finally let go of it.

"Thanks. What about my locker's key? And I'd like to have a map of this school, too, if that's possible, of course."

At least the map would prevent her from getting lost here once again. As if that hadn't caused enough drama already by the first time.

He handed her a silver key that glimmered dimly in the little light that was there in the office. She put it in her bag, hoping that he had not made any copies of that key. She didn't trust him at all. Old habits died hard and she was quite sure that his habits didn't - or even couldn't - die, not even when you used pesticide for it. A pesticide that could get rid of old habbits... She didn't know that that existed, anyway.

"Come back today, after your classes are finished. You'll get the map then, OK?"

What? Coming back? Was he insane? She would never put a foot in this rat's hole again. At least, not if she could prevent it.

She sighed.

"Okay, thank you," she said.

She was too scared right now to give him a smart remark, after what he had done. She had to keep quiet now, until she was safe in her classroom, surrounded by many students, so he wouldn't dare to do something to her again. As if he hadn't done enough, already.

"You're welcome. Now quick go to your class before the teacher gets angry for being late on your first day. Wait, I'll lead you to your class, since you don't have a map yet."

"Thanks," she mumbled, not looking at him.

Before the teachers get angry... gosh, they didn't really sound that nice. But then again, if _he_ was the headmaster, the mother of all evilness in all worlds, then she shouldn't expect too much of the teachers. Heck, she wouldn't even be surprised if Hades was one of the teachers.

He opened the door of his office for her and let her go first (probably to watch her, so she couldn't do something sneaky behind his back). She left his office and then followed him again, heading for the classroom where her first class was.

The thought that he was behind her and that she didn't know what he was doing, was freaking her out. That was even an understatement. After a while he knocked on one of the doors. Now she was really getting nervous. What if the other students wouldn't like her because she was so... strange?

"Yes?" a cold voice said, from the other side of the door.

Hailey shivered when she heard that voice. It sounded so... chilly. It had to be the teacher. He sure didn't sound like a great start of the day. Xehanort opened the door for her.

_Okay, here we go. Oh no, I'm late too. That's all because of this loser here._

She felt how everyone immediately looked at her, even the teacher. He had long, black dreadlocks and a beard. He was writing something on the black-board, but now turned around to see who had interrupted him.

"Ah, headmaster Xehanort, what can I do for you?"

"Why, I'm glad you asked," Xehanort replied.

He walked over to him and whispered something in his ear. The teacher whispered something back and Xehanort nodded slowly. Then, they both simultanously smirked evilly.

_Eeew, that looks scary. How could someone like Xehanort become the headmaster of this school? That is just so wrong._

Xehanort left. He winked at Hailey. Hailey shivered again.

_Now I'll have nightmares for the rest of my life. Thanks a lot, Xehanort. Mark my words, you will pay for everything you've done to me, my family and everyone else. Even if that's the very last thing I'll do._

"Are you waiting for the grass to grow? Why don't you make yourself some useful and come over here?" the teacher asked in a not very friendly way.

Hailey meekly did what he said, after she closed the door behind her. Some students were laughing. She glared at them and they stopped immediately. She hadn't expected that it would work, but she was glad it did.

* * *

On the other side of the door, there happened to be one silver-haired young man that was bored out of his mind. His aquamarine eyes were searching for some pattern on the floor to kill some time. Maths was boring. Especially when Mr Even was the teacher. For Riku, this was a fact.

He sighed, wearily. He had brought the golden necklace with him, just to be sure. It was stuffed somewhere in his bag. Maybe she was here, too. Everybody was talking about a new girl, so she had to be here. However, Riku hadn't seen her yet.

He wondered who she was and what kind of girl it was. Probably a girly-girl. One that giggled constantly and whined about the smallest things, like breaking her nail, or something trivial like that. How he hated those kind of girls. Too bad there were too many of them here.

Someone knocked on the door, breaking his train of thoughts.

At last. That had to be Nick. He was always late for his first class. Dilan was going to be mad... again. Not that anyone was going to be surprised at that, since he was always mad. And most of the time it was for no particular reason. That man really had issues, but he already knew that.

"Yes?" Mr Even said with a cold voice, matching his personality.

As always, the teacher didn't sound like he was in a very good mood. Poor Nick. He was going to get it, and whatever that 'it' would be, Riku knew that it wouldn't be worth getting.

The door opened and Xehanort, the headmaster, came in. This was certainly a surprise for the teen.

Oh, it's that jerk again, he thought, slightly disappointed.

Didn't he have better things to do? Well, apparently not, otherwise he wouldn't be standing there.

Riku never hid the fact that he didn't trust Xehanort, at all. He just couldn't be a good person if you looked at his past and everything he had done. But no, of course Sora didn't listen to him. He just _had_ to give Xehanort a second chance, just like everyone else of the Organization, just because he was such a good and naive person.

He never saw it when people were using him for their own purpose. So now they were all being their teacher, thanks to Sora. Why was Sora being such a naive little boy? He would never forgive Sora for ruining his schooldays, even if he was his best friend. As if school wasn't bad enough already without those teachers that made it a living hell for their students.

The headmaster said something in Mr. Even's ear. Riku sat too far away to hear what they were talking about. Mr Even whispered something back and Xehanort nodded. Then they both smirked evilly and simultanously. Riku could practically feel how his breakfast came back as a response.

Fortunately, the headmaster left soon after those exchange of words, but he didn't bother to close the door.

All Riku could think was, _is it that hard to close the door? Geez... Another proof he was born in a barn._

"Are you waiting for the grass to grow? Why don't you make yourself some useful and come over here?" Mr Even asked in a not very friendly way.

But then again, they were all used to that. Honestly, why was he always that nice to everyone? Wait, Nick would never act like this. He wasn't that shy. But if that wasn't Nick, then... who is it? The new girl? He finally decided to pay more attention to what happened around him in the classroom. Riku's blue eyes narrowed slightly, as he kept staring at the door, until someone decided to finally step inside the classroom.

He was right. A girl with long black hair and dark brown eyes came in. She closed the door softly behind her and slowly, almost catiously, walked towards the teacher. So many thoughts popped into Riku's head at that moment.

Things like, _Whoa,_ _it's her. It's really her! But... how? I thought I would never see her again. That was what she had said to me, and DiZ had said that, too. What is she doing here? ...__Of course it's her. DiZ was the one who gave her that necklace. How could I forget that? She was pretty much the nicest and most normal girl I've ever met... Well, in her own way._

His thoughts were once again rudely interrupted when the teacher said, "This is Hailey. She's new here-"

Yeah... like they didn't know that yet. As if that wasn't logical when nobody had ever seen her before. Even, Master of the Obvious. Now more than ever.

Riku looked at her, but he wasn't the only one. She seemed to be the quiet type. She looked quite nervous too and a little on the pale side. He couldn't blame her. Anyone who would stand next to that teacher had the full right to be nervous as hell.

"Be nice to her, otherwise I will punish you all. Is that clear?"

Now, that was something nice to say. How was she supposed to make friends now? Riku guessed that there was nobody who wanted to hang out with her now. Stupid teacher for ruining innocent people's social life. Although he couldn't deny that he was surprised at this new approach of him. Even wasn't really someone who would defend children, so what made him do now?

"Yes, Mr Even," everyone said at the same time, all sounding like the perfect students every teacher wanted.

"Very well then." He looked around. "Hmm... I want you to sit... over there, if that's okay with you, of course."

Wow, Even was actually being _very_ nice to her. That was a surprise He hadn't even barked at her yet like he would do to other students. He pointed to a place by the window, behind Riku and next to Selphie. It was at the back seat.

"Okay, that's fine," the new girl said.

Not that she had another choice. She walked to her new place, her face staying neutral. Everyone was staring at her, and she did notice that. She looked back at them with a "What-the-hell-are-you-all-looking-at?-Look-all-you-want-if-you-don't-have-better-things-to-do!"

Riku chuckled softly. She wasn't changed a bit since the last time he had seen her. Other students laughed as well.

That was, until Mister Even slammed with a heavy book on his desk and yelled, "Silence! Did I give you the idea that you can talk and laugh all you want? I do not think so!"

The class was silent again. They looked all shocked. Even Hailey. She didn't even bother to look at Riku when she came past him. He felt strange after that. It hurt and he was disappointed, although nobody would ever notice that.

_She didn't even notice me! It's probably because I don't look like Xehanorts Heartless anymore. What was she doing with Xehanort anyway? After all, he was the one who killed her parents... And now that she's sitting next to Selphie, I wish her good luck. Selphie can be so annoying sometimes. It's like she can't shut up._

* * *

**A/N: ****Thanks for reading it. I hope you liked it! ^-^**

**Funfact: One of my classmates, called Nick, is kinda notorious for coming late every day.**


	6. V Flashback

In the mean time, Hailey was cheering in silence and doing a small victory dance in her head, because she was sitting in the back, by a window. This made her extra happy because now she could look at everyone else, instead of them looking at her all the time.

She sat next to a girl with bright emerald green eyes and almost the same color hair as Sora, something in between brown and dark blonde. But the rim of her hair was slightly curled up. It looked kind of strange, but it didn't look that bad on her. It was more of the opposite.

The only annoying thing about her was that she kept looking at Hailey. Hailey ignored her, brushing a part of her bangs in her face again, so she wouldn't face her. She looked at the teacher again. She was _not_ going to ask her random questions. And by the look on her face, Hailey could tell that that was the only thing she wanted to do right now. Some people were too curious for their own good.

Hailey couldn't really pay attention to what the teacher said when he continued his lesson again. Not because of that girl or because the teacher was so incredibly boring, though. She was thinking about Sora and Kairi. Those two didn't seem to leave her mind.

Kairi reminded her strongly of Naminé. Not that Naminé was that annoying or clingy. Namine was far too nice for her own-good. And Roxas... he was a part of Sora, so it didn't really surprise her that Sora reminded her so much of him, although he also differed from Sora. Sora was more outgoing, that was easy to see. That, and Naminé, her uncle and that Ansem guy had told her so.

What did Xehanort mean with "I'm a good guy, thanks to Sora and his friends."?

And, if that was true, then Hailey's uncle knew Sora and Kairi, too. Maybe Sora knew things about him that she didn't. Or maybe he knew what exactly had happened to him and how he died, because that had always remained a mystery for her.

She shook her head to try to concentrate, but it still wouldn't happen to work. So she decided to look around instead. The classroom was really boring. Looking at the white ceiling was even more interesting (somehow, there were holes in it on some places.) The walls were colored a dirty yellow. The students were sitting two by two. There were no plants to be seen anywhere, only wooden tables and chairs, all occupied except for one table in front of her. When she looked at who was sitting in front of her, all she could see was long, almost shoulder-length silver hair.

Silver... It was a nice color. One that shimmered slightly in the light that fell through the windows, almost as if there were glitters in his hair. It reminded him of only one person. Someone she didn't know the true name of, but she called him the Other Ansem, or the Ansem-guy.

This made her think of the dream she had last night. It was about one of her memories of last year. She didn't know why she had dreamed it. Perhaps it was a sign? But if it was, what could it mean?

* * *

**_~Flashback (Hailey's dream last night)~_**

In her dream, Hailey was back in the second Twilight Town, or to be more precise, the copy that her uncle had made of the peaceful world. This was one of the many creations of her uncle. She wouldn't lie if she said that he was good at anything that had to do with science.

She and that Ansem guy were looking for Naminé at that time, who seemed to be gone, again. It happened more and more often and the moments in which she disappeared seemed to become slightly longer, too as time passed.

Hailey knew very well that Naminé was paying a visit to Roxas because she wanted to meet him, but she didn't say anything about it to this Ansem and her uncle. It was one of the few secrets that she and Naminé shared and she had promised to her to keep it a secret between them. And Hailey wasn't a type to break such promises.

"Where could she possibly be? We've looked for her everywhere in this mansion," the Ansem guy asked.

Hailey shrugged casually, fervently hoping that her face wouldn't tell him that she knew more than she was letting on. If there was anyone who could see right through that, it was this guy. She knew she had to be more careful than she usually was with him around.

"I don't know. Maybe we just miss her everytime because she moves around this place all the time? Or maybe..." by now, her voice had become a slight whisper, so Ansem had to come closer to her to hear everything she said. "...Maybe she discovered a secret passage or room somewhere."

If she had been able to see his face, she would know that he had given her a funny look. But alas, she had no idea.

"I don't think so. We already know of all the "secret" rooms in this mansion thanks to your uncle," he told her.

"Hmm... guess you're right then."

She wondered why he always hid his face for her. This question had occurred by her for days. Perhaps now was the time to ask him.

"Uhm... Ansem?" she started, hesitatingly looking up at him.

"Hmm?"

He stopped to look at her. However, this made her only more nervous all of a sudden. Maybe this wasn't a good idea at all...

"Could you..."

To be honest, she didn't really dare to ask him. What if the answer would be no? He kinda freaked her out with his scary voice and silence sometimes.

"Yes?" he said, patiently as always.

_Oh, say it already! How bad could it be?_

"Could you... show me... your face?" she asked, swiftly averting her gaze when she felt that her cheeks started to heat up.

He stayed silent for a long moment, probably thinking about what to do or say next.

Just as Hailey wanted to say something, thinking that he might had forgotten about her question somewhere during his pondering, he broke the silence by asking one simple question, "Why?"

Hailey couldn't make out his neutral-sounding voice whether he was mad or not, so she decided to continue.

"So I won't forget you. I want to see your face, to look into your eyes. I mean, we may never meet again. You know what DiZ said about that. I'll have to sleep and move to another place and when I wake up, I'll be somewhere else, in another world. So the chance that we'll ever see each other again is very slim that way, right?"

He nodded slowly, realizing that what she said was right indeed.

After a short while he said, "Okay, very well, then. If that's really what you want. But don't say I didn't warn you; it will be more than a shocking experience for you."

Hailey wondered why he sounded so... reluctant at showing his face. What did it matter? Was it because he was ugly, or something? But he knew that she wasn't the type to laugh at him, right?

She got the answer to her question, when he revealed his face. Hailey gasped, stepping back slowly. She didn't know what to say. She looked right in the the evil orange-colored eyes of non other than Xehanort, who had been one of her uncle's apprentices. But it couldn't be him!

Then she noticed that he wasn't like the Xehanort she used to know. The Xehanort she knew, would immediately attack her and try to kill her, just like he had killed her parents and Mia. Were they twins?

"I knew you would do that. That's why I hid my face for all of you," he said and looked at the floor, regretting the fact that he had shown her his new face.

"B-but... how?"

He started to explain her everything; how Xehanort's Heartless had had Riku's heart in his power and what had happened next. Hailey remembered how her uncle had once said that this Ansem hadn't been like this when they had crossed paths, and that it was better for all of them that he hid his face. At first, Hailey hadn't understood but at least it made sense now.

Pulling up his hood, he hid his face again.

"You don't have to hide your face for me. I'm not scared of you... not untill you give me a reason to be, that is. Besides, it's not your looks that's important, but what's inside of you; if your heart's in the good place, then you're okay, too."

He listened to her. She looked into his orange-colored eyes that had sparkles of molten gold, for what felt to be at least two minutes. His eyes looked so... sad. Then he broke the silence.

"Here."

He handed her something that he took out of his coat. It was a small package, wrapped in golden paper, almost matching his striking eyes.

"What's this?" she asked him, curiously.

"Open it," was all he said.

She tried not to roll her eyes at that sentence and started to unwrap the paper. Then she saw that it was a beautiful golden necklace with a heart-shaped pendant attached on it.

"What...?" she started, utterly surprised.

"DiZ wanted me to give you this. It'll bring you luck, 'cause it has a special power."

_A special power, huh?_ she thought, impressed.

It was probably made by those fascinating moogles, since they were the only creatures who could synthesize such magical objects.

"What kind of power is that?"

"I don't know. I'm just the delivery boy," he replied, while smirking.

"Thanks," she smiled.

His smirk widened.

"You know, I'm going to miss you," she suddenly said, out of the blue.

"Oh, is that so?" he asked, lifting a brow.

She nodded and smiled, replying with, "Of course!"

"Why? Is it because of the long and good conversations we always have?" he asked, sarcastically.

This time, she did roll her eyes. He sure had an unusual and kinda dry sense of humour, but she liked it, anyway. That way, you thought you could predict his reaction, whereas he always managed to surprise you with what he said.

"Duh, why else?" she replied, jokingly.

"I think I might miss you, too..."

Suddenly, for some inexplainable reason, she felt a lot happier than she had done earlier.

"Well, I'm glad you might."

* * *

Hailey's heart ached at that memory. She really missed him, now more than ever. Sure, aunt Veronica was a great company, too, but he had been different. She wondered if he missed her, too, even if it was just a little bit.

She sighed lightly. Closing her eyes, she touched the place where her necklace was... or rather, used to be. She gasped softly when she couldn't feel her necklace anymore. It was lost!

_Oh no. My precious necklace is lost! Where is it?_

She thought about all the possible places she could have left it, but she didn't remember if she took it off yesterday. So then it had to be somewhere here. She looked around her; under her table, on the floor, in her bag. It was nowhere to be seen. How was that even possible?

"Um... Hailey?" the girl who sat next to Hailey, whispered, rather confused.

Hailey looked surprised at her. Her emerald green eyes had widened slightly and she was giving Hailey a rather funny look, obviously having no idea what had suddenly gotten into her at this moment.

"What is it?" Hailey whispered back.

For a moment, she had totally forgotten that someone was sitting next to her, watching every move she made.

"Are you okay?"

Of course she wasn't okay. She had just lost one of the most precious inanimate things in her life, but what did she care, anyway? She tried to think of a good and believable excuse.

"I'm fine. I'm just... extremely bored and I'm looking for some sort of distraction."

Because who wouldn't be bored in a class like this one, she wondered.

"Ah. I understand."

Now, what a surprise.

"So... do you know your way around yet?"

She just arrived here. How could she know her way around here already? Man o man, talking about using your brains. Hailey couldn't help but think in a sarcastic way about everything the girl said to her.

"No, not really," she replied.

If Sora and Xehanort had not seen her at one point, then she wouldn't even have been here, sitting next to her.

"Perhaps I can help you, Hailey? Only if you want my help, of course."

The sweetness of that alone made Haily smile.

"Okay, sure. That would be great! What's your name, by the way?"

"My name is Selphie."

She found herself thinking that that was quite an unusual name. Not a stupid one. It actually had something.

"Okay. Thank you, Selphie. That's really nice of you."

"Oh, no problem. You know, there aren't many girls here. So this should be fun for me, too."

Wow, she was actually very nice. A little bit annoying because she was so curious, but still. It could have been much worse, right? Hailey was just glad that she wasn't anything like Kairi.

Then, the boy who sat in front of her, turned in his seat, so she could finally see his face. He had long, silvery hair that shined beautifully when the sunlight hit it. It framed his chiselled face in an impossibly amazing way. His eyes had the same color as the sea. Hailey almost melted at that sight alone. She started to wonder why she hadn't noticed him before, when she was walking towards her seat.

And then his unusual haircolor. Maybe he and that Ansem-guy were family, or something. Her heart seemed to lose control for a moment. It was beating very fast. Too fast to be a good sign. She thought that everyone in the class could hear that sound.

"You know, you're not the only one who's bored right now," he assured her, his aquamarine eyes shimmering brightly.

_Whoa, talking about the most adorable face I've ever seen in my whole life! Especially when he smiles and shows me his white teeth. But that's strange. I feel like I've seen him before. But that's impossible. I would never forget a face like that, so-_

"Hey, _you_!"

Hailey and the rest of the class nearly got a heart-attack. Mr. Even looked furious at none other than Hailey! He had bulging eyes, like he was getting insane, ready to eat her alive... or worse.

_Uh-oh, now I really am in trouble._

She gulped. Who was going to save her now? At least in her last school her friends attempted to help her out of the miserty, but she didn't know anyone here so that was out of the question now.

"Did I give you the intention that you could talk with her? I don't think so!"

Oh wait, he was talking about the silver-haired wonder it seemed, not about her. She did feel bad for him, though. Wait... silver-haired _wonder_? Why did she think that?

"But I do, old man," he said, looking calmly at hime.

All the students gasped. _Nobody_ dared to call him an old man in his face, even if it was the truth. They knew very well what was coming now. They looked from the boy to the teacher and back to the boy again, like they were watching them play volleyball, or tennis or maybe even pingpong.

"How _dare_ you? Show some respect for your elder! I'll send you to the headmaster. That serves you right! I never want to see that ugly face of yours again, until you've learned some manners!"

Hailey almost started to laugh at that statement. Ugly? She didn't think so. Look who's calling who ugly here. But she had to save him! He wouldn't survive a visit to Xehanort's office! Besides, he was telling him the truth. It looked like the other students were all little cowards. They wouldn't stand up for him.

"But that's not fair! He was just... helping me!" Hailey exclaimed, before she could really register what the heck she was actually doing to herself.

Oh, she and her big mouth. Now she would have to save him, and herself. But how?

Now everybody was looking at Hailey. She could tell from the look that was plastered on their faces that they were astonished. Astonished was even an understatement here.

"Wh- what?" the teacher asked, surprised as well.

He completely forgot to sound and to look angry. The attractive boy turned around as well. She could tell from his face that he was wondering what she was up to. Unfortunately, she had no idea. She wasn't that good at lying, but now she had no choice.

"He... just told me what you had written on the board, because I can't read it from here. So he was actually helping me. I didn't want to insult your lesson, so I asked him if he could help me. Please don't send him to the headmaster. Send me. It was all my fault. I'm very sorry."

Wait, what the hell was she saying? Why should _she_ go to the headmaster... again? She didn't even do anything wrong yet!

The boy looked also astonished at her. He understood that she was just trying to help him. So apparently, he tried to save her butt, too.

"Mr. Riku, is she telling the truth?"

"Yeah, that's right. She's telling you the truth. Wow, it sure feels good knowing that your teachers always wish the best for you and always trust you, no matter what."

Some students giggled. Hailey could see that Mr. Even was thinking about this question. He had his doubts about both kids.

But suddenly she felt very strange. She had a headache all of a sudden and she heard a voice saying something.

_Hmm... what shall I do. Xehanort told me to be nice to the girl. But the boy is a problem. He is such a spoiled brat. If he was helping her - suppose that I believe them both - then she's the one who has to visit the headmaster. But then it's off with my head and I can't risk my own life..._

It was Mr. Even who said all this. At least, that's what she thought, since it was his voice.

"What?" Hailey asked surprised, interrupting him.

She wondered why he said that loud, since it only revealed what Xehanort had whispered to him. Now everybody knew, so it wasn't a secret anymore...


	7. VI Sora's secret

"Excuse me?" Mr. Even asked.

"What did you just say?" she asked again, looking intensely at his reaction to see if he was lying or not.

She didn't really get wiser of that so he was either very good at hiding when he was lying, or he was simply telling her the truth.

"Excuse me," he repeated, lifting his eyebrows at her.

"No, I mean before that."

"What?"

"What did you say before 'excuse me?'" she asked again, now slightly irritable because he just wouldn't get it.

"I just told you; I said 'what?'" the teacher replied, perplexed by now.

Hailey sighed. Both were growing impatient with each other now. That much was obvious. This was going to be a very_ long_ day. Was it that hard to understand her?

"What did you say between 'what' and 'excuse me' and after you asked Riku if I was speaking the truth?'" she tried once again, but to no avail.

Everyone was looking weird at her by now, too.

She even thought that she heard someone say, _Wow, what the hell? What's the heck's wrong with the new girl?_

Not that she cared about what they were thinking right now.

"I said nothing. I was just... thinking. Are you alright, Hailey? You look a little confused," the teacher noted.

_Huh? Why didn't anyone hear what he said? I'm not going to believe that I actually heard what he was thinking! That's far too weird. Maybe it's a new trick of the Organization..._ she pondered.

"It's nothing. Just a headache," she swiftly replied, so he wouldn't get suspicious.

"Ah yes, I understand. It's probably because you're new here," the teacher said.

What did the fact that she was new here have to do with her having a headache? It just didn't make sense to her. He really was weird. No, scratch that. They were _all_ acting weird here, from the headmaster and teachers to students like Kairi.

Okay, now this was just great. She was hearing voices in her head! It was probably because of what happened today... or that was what she guessed.

"So... what have you decided, Sir?" Hailey asked him.

The teacher looked questioning at her. She sighed, wondering if everyone was that slow today, or was she simply too fast for them?

"The punishment," she reminded him, with a voice that almost said 'duh.'

"Oh! Of course." Mr. Even looked at Riku and said, "It seems that you're lucky, because this time I'll believe you. But next time you _will_ visit the headmaster, no matter what! Is that clear, young man?"

"Yes, Sir!" the boy replied, but everyone could hear how sarcastic he was actually being.

Some students chuckled again.

Hailey just couldn't believe it. Mr. Even actually believed her lie. How stupid could people be? For a moment, she had really thought he would send her to Xehanort as well for being so annoying.

"But I think it's better for you to sit somewhere else, Hailey, so that you can read the things I write on the board. We don't want you to get bad notes, no do we?" the teacher said, "how about… next to the young man who helped you before?"

Okay... She just lied in his face and her "punishment" was the best thing that had happened to her today. How weird sounded that? Not that she had any reasons to complain. She didn't mind this at all.

"Okay, that's fine," she said, once again cheering in silence and trying not to sound too happy about this idea, just in case he would change his mind by seeing her in such a good mood.

She didn't want that to happen, of course.

Hailey did what the teacher suggested and got up from her place, leaving a perplexed Selphie behind.

"But that's not fair! What about Nick? He always sits over there!" Selphie asked all of a sudden.

_Hey, just shut up, will ya? So you're not that nice as I thought you would be to me. Why is she trying to ruin everything? Is it because she's jealous?_ Hailey thought, slowly getting mad at her now.

"Now he's sitting right next to you. That's his punishment because he's always late. I'm wondering what's happened now to him. Which excuse would he use today? Did he get attacked by talking ducks and dogs or did his cat die... for the 1000th time?" the teacher wondered, the sarcasm practically dripping from his voice. "And here I thought that cats have only nine lives."

Hailey sighed, relieved. That was a close one.

"But... I can't see the board either from here," Selphie whined, probably ignoring the fact that the teacher just insinuated it was a punishment to sit next to her.

"That's also why Nick is going to sit next to you from now on. Nick has glasses, so if you can't read what I write on the board, you can ask him quietly."

"But I hate-" Selphie started again.

"-That's enough already! I want to continue my class now."

_Haha, good for you, girl. That's what you get for trying to get in my way._

When the teacher continued his class, the boy next to her whispered in her ear, "Hey, thanks for saving me from that monster. What an action."

"No problem. It was the least I could do," she smiled, blushing slightly.

The boy smiled back. At once, her heart started beating faster than ever. If she had the chance to look a little bit longer in those beautiful eyes, then she was sure she would have melted away like chocolate in the sun. At least now she could make good use of her time; daydreaming about him! That teacher really had to practice his writing. She couldn't even read it from here, but hey, he didn't have to know that, she was sitting great here.

_Whoa, she saved me! I can't believe it. But it looks like she still hasn't recognized me. What a pity_, she heard.

It was the boy next to her. But the strangest thing was that his lips didn't move. She had really heard his voice saying that, though.

What was happening to her? Who did she constantly hear voices? Was she ill? She put her hand against her forehead to check that, but her temperature seemed to be normal. How weird...

* * *

After seventeen extraordinarily_ long_ minutes the bell finally rang.

"Pff, finally. I thought I was dying of boredom here. Saved by the bell," the boy mumbled.

Hailey chuckled. He had a good sense of humour.

"Believe me, you were not the only one," she noted.

He laughed softly at that, a soft, melodious sound. All the students tried to get out of the class, as soon as they could. There even was a blockage by the door for a short while, because four students wanted to walk out of the door at the same time.

_Wow, some popular teacher that is..._

When Hailey finally was outside, she saw Sora coming her way, but he hadn't seen her yet. She waved at him to get his attention.

When he saw Hailey, his usual goofy smile appeared on his face. "Hey! So how was your first class? Did you like it? Was the teacher nice to you?" he asked her.

She sighed. "Want to hear the truth? The teacher was surprisingly nice to me, but it was terrible. Mr Dilan is _so_ boring!"

"Oh, thanks... I've got him next," Sora laughed.

"Oh, poor you. You'd better not fall asleep in his class, otherwise he probably won't spare you," she warned.

Sora smiled. "Don't you worry. I won't. I promise. Besides, I wouldn't dare! Who does anyways?"

"I do."

They both turned around, just in time to see the silver-haired wonder calmly walk out of the class.

"Yeah, but you're an exception, like always," Sora countered, with a cross of his arms.

"No, you're just a pussy," the boy said playfully.

Sora stack his tongue out to his best friend.

"Looks like that's the only thing you can do, sticking out your tongue. Anyway, what are you doing here on your own? It almost looks like you've dumped Kairi somewhere and now you're looking for a new girl," the boy asked curiously.

"No, not really. Kairi would kill me if she found out I was cheating on her," Sora said laughing.

Hailey smiled, remembering her first encounter with the redheaded beauty. Somehow, she could _so_ see that happening.

"Pussy," he said, teasing Sora.

"Am not!" Sora yelled.

"Are too," his friend teased again.

"Am not!"

"Are too."

Sora sighed. "Yeah, right. Whatever."

"So how did you escape from her?" he asked his friend, suddenly sounding really suspicious.

Sora started shuffling his feet under his best friend's intense stare. One could tell that he was very nervous.

"What, is it that bad? Oh no. Did you do what I think that you just did?" the boy asked amazed.

Sora nodded slowly and reluctantly. He gulped, probably knowing what his silver-haired friend would say next.

"No! Idiot! Are you insane? Do you want to die, or something? You know what she's going to do next, don't you?"

"But I really had no choice! I swear!" Sora tried to defend himself, like a little kid who was just caught red-handed by a policeman, with his hand in the cookie jar.

The other boy only shook his head, looking sympathized.

"Wait. What did he just do?" Hailey asked, getting more confused with every second that passed.

He hadn't hurt Kairi... had he?

"Well, according to what I just thought, he said that he had to go to the toilets. And Kairi known, she said of course that she would wait for him outside. Sora knew very well she couldn't go inside, because, you know, she's a girl and girls aren't allowed to come inside of the boys toilets. He climbed through a window, so he could escape from her. I think Kairi's still waiting there for you by the toilets. Shame on you," the boy explained to her.

"What? You really did that?" Hailey asked, totally amazed.

Sora nodded reluctantly.

"Whoa! I think now you really have a problem."

"Yeah, tell me. Man, Kairi's gonna kill you if she finds you here. Especially if she finds you with Hailey. Then she's gonna kill you both. And after you, maybe the rest of the boys of this school," the boy told.

Hailey tried not to burst out into laughter. He really was funny. She didn't know that people could be so desperate, though.

"I know, I know! I'll have to take that risk then. But she was never like that before. I'm wondering what's wrong with her though. I'm really worried about her."

"Well, maybe she's having a period or it's another girl thing we guys just wouldn't understand," the boy suggested, "but what do you think, Hailey? After all, you're the expert, aren't you?"

He looked at Hailey. She tried not to laugh and she noticed that he had the same problem.

"Get serious, dude," Sora said, but he was smiling too.

"Eh... maybe. If you say so. Who knows? By the way, what's your name?"

Sora yelped. Some students, who walked past them, looked astonished at him, wondering what was wrong with him now.

"Eh... are you okay, Sora?" the boy asked, quirking an eyebrow and not sounding worried at all.

"What do you think? Of course I'm not okay! You've had a class with her, she's probably the prettiest girl of your class, beside Kairi of course, and you didn't even tell her your name? And then people wonder why you don't have a girlfriend. Sheesh, what kind of a human being are you actually? How do you want to get a girl then, huh? Huh?"

"Shut up. You're so immature," he mumbled, punching Sora lightly in his ribs.

"Ow, that hurts! Not everyone can be just as grown up as you, y'know?" Sora said, with a painful face.

He punched him back, but the boy didn't even move, like he didn't feel the blow at all.

"The name's Riku. Nice meeting you," the silver haired boy said, smiling a small smile at Hailey.

She blushed again. "Nice meeting you too."

"Eh, don't wanna break the conversation between you two lovebirds, but we're getting late. We've got exactly two minutes to get into the right class, before the teachers get angry," Sora began, teasing them.

Hailey blushed some more shades.

Riku saw it and said, threatening his best friend, "Stop it, Sora, or I'll go and call for Kairi. I'm sure she wants to see you again. Especially because of what you did to her..."

Sora became really pale after these words.

He gulped. "No, no. That's not necessary."

"I knew you would say that. So, Hailey. What've you got next?" Riku wanted to know.

"Um..." Hailey looked at her schedule, which she was still holding in her hands, before she replied with, "Economics with... Mr Braig. Hmm... it can't be that bad, right?"

"I really admire your courage, but don't be so sure. From now on, things can only get worse here. Keep that in mind," Riku said with an ominous voice.

"Thanks. That's… reassuring," Hailey said and she sighed.

Then how was she supposed to survive this year after hearing that?

"Sorry..."

"Look; even my hands are shaking. Well, I better get going. See ya!" Sora called.

He turned around. The door of Mr Dilan's classroom was still open. It looked inviting in a very scary way.

"Good luck, Sora."

"Yeah. Believe me: you'll need it," Riku continued.

"Thanks guys."

He shut the door. There was only silence now in the hallways. Hailey and Riku were the only one who were standing there, like they had nothing else to do.

"So... what've you got next, Riku?"

"The same..." he replied.

"The same?" she repeated, not understanding what he meant.

"As you..." he continued.

"Oh, okay. Cool."

"Yeah, guess so. We must hurry up, though, 'cause we're kinda late, thanks to Sora and his chatting habit."

"Oh, okay," Hailey said.

They continued walking, in silence now.

_Man, first too late for maths and now for economics too. I don't think I made such a good start..._

After a short while, Riku stopped in front of a door.

"Watch this," he whispered with a smirk on his face.

_He does look cute, even with that smirk on his beautiful face. I'm wondering what he wants to show me._

He opened the door with a huge sweep and run inside. She could hear a muffled boom in the background, yet very near them.

"Huh? Where's the teacher? Did you all throw him out of the window?" he cried, in a very entertainingly surprised way.

The class was silent for a moment. Just for a short moment. Then, as if on cue, they all started to laugh hysterically.

"Wait, what's wrong? Why are you laughing? I'm not that funny... am I?" Riku asked surprised.

"Just look behind the door, dude," a boy with short, spiky, blond hair said, while he laughed even harder.

Riku listened to his hint. He looked behind the door and saw the teacher. He was holding his nose with both of his hands. According to that muffled boom, it was probably broken, too.

"Huh? Mr. Braig, what - what are you doing there?" Riku asked in an amazed way.

But Hailey knew he was not amazed at all. She could tell that he was actually hoping that a small accident like this one would happen.

"M'leavin'," the teacher growled.

Hailey tried not to die of laughter. Her stomach began to hurt. He looked silly. Especially with that blinder, which reminded her of a pirate. The fact that his long, black, greying hair was tied to the back, only added more to that effect.

"But what about the new girl? Who's gonna introduce her then?" Riku asked.

"You. I'll be back by then," was the growling answer.

He walked out of the class and shut the door, still holding onto his nose. It was a wonder that Riku had understood him.

"Man, that was awesome. I've always wanted to do that. I'll never forget that look on his face. That's what you get when you tell me that I look at him like he drowned my goldfish," Riku laughed.

"Wow, talk about revenge," Hailey commented, laughing lightly.

The whole class was immediately silent, all looking at her, as if it was a wonder that she could talk. Oh, she and her big mouth again... Maybe she should say nothing anymore.

"Eh... did I say something?" Hailey asked.

"Say Riku, who have you brought with you?" the boy who gave Riku the hint asked, looking from him to Hailey and back again.

"I'll tell you, if you stop staring at her like that. She's a girl, not one or another exotic animal in the zoo."

The boy blushed a little bit and looked at the floor. He said nothing anymore, probably feeling more embarrassed than ever.

"That's much better, right?" Riku asked.

Hailey nodded. She tried to look calm, but from the inside, she was the opposite way. It was unbelievable, really, his bluntness actually worked.

"This is Hailey. And for everyone who still doesn't know yet, after staring at her for ages: she's new here. Be nice at her, otherwise that old Dilan will punish you all. Is that clear?"

The students laughed again.

"According to me, Hailey is a great person. She's also a lifesaver, 'cause she saved me from that evil monster, called Dilan. That means I owe her. So if anyone harms her, he or she doesn't only have a problem with Dilan, but also with me. Got it?"

The class was silent for a short moment. Then they all said at the same time, "Yes, sir!"

Hailey was amazed by these words, but she did not want that other students would notice it.

"Say Hailey, would you like to sit next to me again?" Riku asked softly, so that only she could hear him now.

She blushed madly, as another rush of adrenaline rushed through her body. Honestly, which girl wouldn't like that?

"I'd love to," she replied, following him to a group of four tables, only to see that one person that didn't like her at all... And the feeling was starting to get mutual by the way the redhead was glaring at her now...

* * *

**A/N: Sorry if Riku's so OOC sometimes... ****Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. ^-^**


	8. VII The Break

At this very moment, Kairi was glaring at her as if she wanted to bore holes into her face with her eyes alone. So she sat in a group with Kairi and another girl she didn't know. The girl had black hair and green eyes, eyes of a cat. The girl smiled sweetly at Hailey. Well, actually more at Riku, but sometimes even at Hailey, too, so she supposed that at least the girl didn't hate her guts. Riku quickly looked away from her, though. But Kairi's face looked the opposite of the girls face.

_Ai, talking about a welcome committee. _

Was Kairi trying to scare her? Because if she was, then it actually worked; Haily was really getting scared now.

"Hey Kairi, how are you doing?" Hailey said, when nobody seemed to want to say anything to break the awkward silence and the thickening tension in the air.

Kairi didn't answer, as expected, but only shot her a hot look that said more than a thousand words, her teeth gritted. She looked even angrier, although she somehow still managed to smile at her. After less than a second her face became all calm and serene.

"Uh... what is it with you?" Hailey asked carefully, doubting that she was alright.

"I'll tell you. I know Sora was with you a few minutes ago and I know you're after him."

_Huh?_

Honestly, what was she talking about?

Suddenly Hailey felt how everyone was looking at her and Kairi. They were probably waiting for Hailey's answer to come. Even Riku paid attention to her, looking curious, even though he didn't want to let her show it.

"Oh really? What makes you think that?"

"Kairi, I think you're being unreasonable here. Sora just showed her around, since she's new her-"

"So you managed to cast a spell on him, too?" Kairi said, pointing at Riku.

"Huh, what?" Riku said, dumbfounded.

"Shocked?" Hailey countered fiercely.

Why was she acting all jealous?

Kairi didn't say a thing for the rest of the class. The only thing that she did, was giving her dirty looks when they looked at each other.

_Wow, if she could kill me with her dirty looks, then I was dying now for the seventh time! Maybe I have to act a little bit nicer to her and explain her everything patiently._

Maybe if she teld her the way she felt for Riku, she would change this attitude and even help her... Although she wouldn't be surprised if it wouldn't help a bit.

"Hey, Kairi. I want to tell you something," Hailey whispered.

She did not want to be heard by the rest of the students. It was none of their business anyway.

"In case you didn't notice, I'm ignoring you, 'cause I don't care," she said, not looking at Hailey, but looking at the ceiling instead.

She was already afraid of that. Now she was really getting pissed. Hailey had no patience left anymore.

"What's wrong with you? You're acting like a hopeless idiot!"

"Who's calling who hopeless?" Kairi cried, with accusing eyes. "You're hopeless; you're trying to take Sora away from me!"

"Wha- That's not true and you know it, too!" Hailey said sputtering, before she sighed. "Kairi, now you really have got to listen to me. You and Sora are a great couple. Really. And I really don't want to hurt you. I don't want him. You can 'have' him. He's yours. I only see him as a new friend I made today. You'll have to trust me and Sora a little bit more. I'm not that kind of person who destroys relationships behind people's back. You were absolutely right: you and Sora belong together."

Kairi finally looked at Hailey. Hailey could see all her doubts, written in her eyes.

"You know, I think she's telling you the truth," the other girl, who had followed the conversation, said slowly.

"Are you seri-"

"What the hell do you think you're doing, Kairi?" the teacher suddenly asked.

Oh, she had almost forgotten that they were actually in a class, surrounded by students... who now all happened to look at her. The other students were very quiet.

"You're not paying any attention, are you? Do you know what that means?" Mr. Braig asked with an unbelievable calm, but scary voice.

"Um... detention?" Kairi asked soft and visibly scared.

"Yes, my dear. That's right; detention. Plus you'll have to visit the headmaster."

Everyone gasped in horror.

_Hmm... the voice of Mr. Dilan which was in my head for some reason or another said that he had to be nice at me, or it would be off with his head. So maybe Mr. Braig has to be nice at me, too. At least I can try it. Not that Kairi doesn't deserve detention after what she said about me, but maybe this will be a new chance for us to become friends._

"That's not fair, sir! She was just helping me. Economics is so hard for me, you see. Sometimes I have no idea what exactly I'm doing. So if you punish her, you'll have to punish me, too," Hailey said.

Everyone, inclusive Mr Braig, Riku, Kairi and the other girl, looked with an open mouth at Hailey, who, once again, didn't blame them at all.

_If that's true... then I can't do anything because of the girl. Hmph! Why has life to be so cruel?_ The teachers voice said angrily and disappointed.

The teacher was the first one who closed his mouth and said something. "Oh. I thought she was talking about that boyfriend of her again. I'm… sorry," Mr Braig said, although he did not sound as if he really was sorry.

"It's okay, sir. After all, it was my mistake. I just didn't want to interrupt your interesting-" (Riku rolled his eyes by hearing this statement) "class. So I'm sorry too," Hailey said with a smile.

_Now he surely can't send us away. Not after what I said, since I'm probably the first one who gave him a compliment about his classes._

She was completely right about that.

"Oh, you don't have to, Hailey. Just be a good kid now, Kairi. Well, where were we? Oh, right, I remember again: elasticity..."

_Elasticity? Really? Guess I had not paid that much attention then_, Hailey thought, surprised.

When he continued his class again, Kairi asked surprised, yet impressed, "Why did you save me? I mean, I was acting so rude to you. It would have served me right to go to the headmaster, wouldn't it?"

"You know, she's got a point here. I wouldn't have saved her if I were you. Especially not after what she said about you, and after she called you a witch behind your back and-" Riku nodded.

"Thanks a lot, Riku. We've got the picture now," Kairi said grumpily, cutting his sentence off.

"You're welcome, Kai," Riku said, with a smirk tugging at his lips.

"I've saved you, because Sora would probably kill me, if I brought his girl into huge problems," Hailey answered laughing.

Kairi blushed a little bit, but smiled her real smile for the first time at Hailey. "Okay, why don't we start all over again? Hi, I'm Kairi."

"And I'm Hailey. Nice to meet you, Kairi."

"It's nice to meet you too, Hailey. So what do you say: friends?"

She extended her hand to Hailey. Hailey grabbed her hand with a smile on her face. She had never thought that it would be that easy to become friends with her.

"I'd love to!"

"Okay... girls really are strange. First, they're almost trying to kill each other and act like they're arch enemies of each other and then they're like best friends forever," Riku said, while he shook his head.

He was smiling, though. Hailey, Kairi and the other girl chuckled.

"Yeah, I think that's a girl thing you'll never understand, Riku," Kairi said, with a twinkle in her violet-colored eyes.

* * *

After a couple of minutes, the bell rang again.

_Whoa! That soon already? Not that I'm complaining._

"Yay! Finally a break," the girl with the green cat-eyes said, sounding full of energy and happier than Hailey had ever seen her. "Well, gotta go now. See ya, Kairi and Hailey. Bye Riku."

She waved and winked at Riku, who sighed and quickly looked away.

"See ya, Marina," Hailey and Kairi said at exactly at the same time, which made them both laugh.

_Not too soon, I hope_, Hailey heard Riku say, but he didn't move his lips.

_Huh? What is this? Am I getting insane or something?_ she thought, getting confused again.

Then Riku said, "Whoa, you two just became friends and you say everything at the same time already! How amazing."

This time, however, he actually had moved his lips. He was looking at the two of them now.

"Yeah... She really likes you," Hailey noted.

_I'm wondering about his feelings for Marina._

"Yeah, tell me. She has been stalking me for weeks now. She has bought things for me like chocolate and other sweet things and supported me with everything; sports, homework. She's really getting on my nerves these days," Riku said.

"Yeah, but she's not the only one. With her are at least 120 other girls," Kairi noted now.

"And here I thought Selphie was getting annoying with her "Riku-is-a-hotty-club". Why don't they understand the three words "I'm not interested?"' Riku wondered.

Hailey shrugged, while she answered, "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you're too irresistible. I think they still hope to hear a "yes" from you."

_...Wait a sec, did I just say all that out loud? Embarrassing! I wish you would say "yes" to me, too. I don't think I have a chance, though._

Riku smiled a little and said nothing. Kairi gave her a funny look. She quickly looked away, knowing that she was starting to blush, again.

_She looked at me as though she actually really knew what I meant when I said that. I hope she can't read minds... Hmm... read minds? I wonder..._

"You think so?" Riku asked, almost uncertainly.

"I know so," Hailey answered.

"How? Have they told you something like that?" Riku asked again, getting rather confused.

"No, it's just a feeling I have. And my feelings are never wrong."

"I know," he whispered.

"What did you say?" Hailey asked him.

"Nothing. Why do you ask?" Riku asked.

"Uh... nothing. I thought I heard you saying something. Guess I was wrong."

_...Again. I'm almost thinking that he has met me somewhere before. I even get the idea that he knows me better than he shows... Nah, that's not possible, right? Me and my strange thoughts. I'm almost scaring myself sometimes._

It was then that they arrived at the canteen. However, that only made her more nervous. After all, she had a big decision to make.

_Oh, where shall I sit now? 'Cause everyone wonders where I'm going to sit. Probably I'll be all alone today... Well, at least they all have a reason to laugh about me now._

The people in the canteen looked at every movement she made and every step she took. It was really getting annoying, being watched like she was some animal in the zoo that they could look at all they wanted, for free. If she hadn't been this nervous, she would've laughed at Riku's choice of words, again.

Kairi noticed all of the staring, too, because then she asked her, "Hailey, would you like to sit on our table? There's plenty of place for all of us."

Hailey honestly had thought that Kairi would never ask her that. "Sure!" she answered, smiling and immediately brightening up a little.

If she would have asked the very same thing just an hour ago, then Hailey would have thought that she was really getting insane there... or that she was up to something evil, involving none other than herself.

Hailey followed her and Riku to a table, across the canteen. Sora first smiled his goofy smile when he saw Hailey, but then gulped visibly when he saw that Kairi was with her and she was coming closer and closer to him.

"Hey, guys! Long time no seen. So how was economics?" Sora asked before someone else (read: Kairi) could say something he didn't want to hear.

"Kinda hard, actually. I didn't understand the half of what he said after he broke his nose. Not that I usually understand what he's saying," Kairi told him.

"He _what_?" Tidus cried, astonished.

His eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline. Selphie, who sat next to him, laughed about Tidus's funny face.

"Riku did it," Kairi quickly said, before someone could stop her.

"Kairi!" Riku said, extremely annoyed that that had slipped out of her that easily.

Apparently, he hadn't planned to mention this piece of information to anyone of their group of friends.

Kairi shrugged. "_What_? I think they have the right to know what happened with him. He's also their teacher, remember?" Kairi said, defending herself. "Besides, it's not like nobody will ever know what you did. You should be lucky that nobody has punished you... yet."

"So Riku was the one who did all this?" Selphie giggled.

It seemed that there was another fan girl of Riku. Beware.

Riku nodded briefly and replied with a rather sharp edge in his voice, "Yes. So now you have more stuff for your club to discuss. I'm afraid I don't give any interviews, though."

"Aw, not fair... Well, maybe Hailey wants to tell me something about it?" Selphie asked, as sweetly as she could.

Hailey looked from the corner of her eyes at Riku. He bit on his lip and was waiting for her answer to come. Hailey could see he was probably expecting the worst. It almost felt like his eyes were begging her not to do such a thing.

"Sorry, I don't give any interviews about the hotty of this school. Then he wouldn't be as much mysterious as he is right now, right? That would be such a pity."

Selphie's face fell after these words. "Hmm... maybe you're right," she said after a while, although rather reluctantly.

Riku looked at Hailey and smiled a bit. She melted again from the inside.

"Thanks," he whispered.

"Anytime."

She couldn't help but notice that he was very quiet, all of a sudden. Why? Maybe he became a little shy when too much people were around him.

"Hey, Hailey, why don't you come and sit over here?"

Kairi touched the place next to her, to indicate what spot she meant.

Hailey smiled and nodded. "Sure. Thanks."

She sat down next to Kairi, on the opposite of Riku, who sat next to Tidus. Sora, who sat on the other side of Kairi, looked amazed at Kairi, like he saw her for the first time today.

"What? Is there something wrong? Is it my hair? It's my hair, isn't it? I already thought so. I bought a new shampoo and I don't really think that I look as-" Kairi said, before Sora interrupted her.

He carefully touched her forehead and answered, "Kairi, are you okay? I think you're ill, 'cause barely two hours ago you were acting in a very different way, and very mean, too."

Kairi knocked his hand away with a slight huff and quickly changed the subject. "Talking about hours… Where were you an hour ago? I've been waiting for ages by that door. But I didn't want to come late in class, so I left..."

Tidus who also sat next to Selphie, tried to make a conversation with Selphie. Only, Selphie was kind of distracted. Distracted was an understatement here. She was looking at Riku all the time. Hailey noticed that she was not the only one. More than 75 percent of all the girls in the canteen looked longingly at Riku. Riku didn't even look at them. It was kind of funny, actually.

"Why are you laughing?" Riku asked after a while, when he noticed the look on her face.

Hailey turned her head toward Riku. He was looking at her in silence. Hailey hadn't even noticed that he had been looking at her all this time.

"Oh, uh...well, I just noticed that more than 75 percent of all the girls here in the canteen are only looking at you. I just thought that that's kinda... funny."

He quirked an eyebrow, wondering how that would be funny. "So you think that's funny, huh? Then let me tell you something that's even funnier, every boy here in the canteen is looking at you right now."

She almost rolled her eyes at that.

_Yeah, right._

Yet, she still looked around her, just to be sure that it wasn't true. Riku was right, though; every boy in the canteen kept looking at her. She started to blush slightly. What was so interesting about her that they didn't look at someone else?

"I knew you would think the same as I do. At least you know now how I feel. Come on, I know a place where there aren't much people to stare at you."

_How is he so sure that I'll follow him?_

"Where are you guys going?" Sora asked immediately, as curious as he was.

"To the toilets, of course. She wants to wait for me outside, just to make sure that nothing will happen to me, or that I'll come back. That's where I want to dump her," Riku answered, smirking slightly.

Selphie started to laugh, but she stopped doing so when she choked on her drink. Hailey chuckled, although she thought that it was mean what he said. She stood up from her place and followed Riku. The last thing she saw that happened in the canteen, was that Sora was blushing madly and Kairi looked to the floor, again. The raven-haired teen wondered where he would take her to.

Riku took Hailey to the library of the school. There were the only students there and it was quiet and peaceful. The perfect place.

"This is much better, right?" he asked her.

Hailey nodded. "Much better."

"You'd better watch out. I think they've just decided to make a "Hailey-is-a-lifesaver-fan-club.""

Hailey chuckled. "Yeah, like they don't have better things to do."

"Well, they really don't. At least, not the girls..."

"Hey!" Hailey said, quasi-offended.

She put her hands on her hips and gave him a defiant look.

"Oh, I didn't mean you," he said quickly, by seeing that expression crossing her face. "You're not like them. You're very different. You're..."

"I'm what?" Hailey wanted to know now.

Riku had made her curious. Could it be a positive thing, or was it a bad thing?


	9. VIII Xehanort's office

**A/N: Thanks: AGCourtney, Lexcia, Soul Of Doom and native-kitten. ****Enjoy reading! ^-^**

* * *

"...Special."

She certainly hadn't expect to hear that word and she didn't know for sure if he meant it as a comliment or not. "Special? I guess you mean I'm not as social as the other girls?"

"No, I meant you're better than them," he said quickly, explaining her what he actually meant.

Hailey smiled at that. "Thanks."

She looked at him. He looked at her too, without saying anything or looking away from her. Maybe she was the first girl who could look that long into his beautiful eyes... She could see her own reflection in them if she looked more closely. That was when she suddenly remembered that Ansem guy. She really missed him, with his dry remarks and calm demeanor. He hadn't even told her his real name! She wondered where he was now... and why in the world he had popped up in her mind so suddenly. He didn't even look like Riku, except for the same haircolor, so it couldn't be because of that. Perhaps it was because their personalities were so alike.

"What is it?" he asked after what felt for at least two minutes.

He had noticed that she was frowning slightly, while still looking at him with a strange expression on her face. Riku wondered if she had seen the link, yet. If that was the case, then she really was quick.

_Oh, nothing. I just love to look into these eyes of yours, that's all..._

"Nothing really. You remind me of someone, that's all."

At this, Riku's heart started to beat faster. Okay, so maybe she hadn't found out yet, but she was close enough. He was sure that she was talking about him, without knowing it herself. It just had to be.

He tried not to sound too eager when he said with mild interest, "Oh? Is it a nice person?"

_That was hard to tell, but... I guess he was a good guy._

"Yeah, he was always so nice to me. He wasn't much of a talker, though. But the things he did say, were always funny."

"I see. Let me guess: it's about your boyfriend?"

At this, she gave him a surprised look. "No, don't have one, to be honest. I actually meant a... good friend of mine. But I haven't seen him for months. I don't even know how he's doing now, or where he is. I hope he's alright..."

_I don't even know whether he's alive or not... I had told him to come and visit me when things were okay between the worlds again, but there's still no trace of him. Maybe he forgot about me?_

"Oh…" was all he said. After a short while he changed the subject. "So... the only things I know about you is your name and that you don't have a boyfriend. That's not so much, right?"

She nodded, wondering what he was up to now.

"So maybe... we can get to know each other?"

She looked surprised at him. Was she dreaming or was he blushing? Aw, that was so sweet!

"Ehm, sure! So... what exactly do you want to know?" she asked him.

"Uh, let me think... favourite color?"

"Blue," she answered, without taking a second to think about it. Her favorite color had always been blue and probably always would be. "Yours?"

"I don't really have one, but I guess that black is okay... Your goal in life?"

"To bride my horizon."

"Okay, just like me. Ehm... favourite shape?"

"A star."

"Hey, we've got another thing in common. Lucky number?"

"Five. And yours?"

_Talk about random questions,_ she thought, trying not to smile at the sillyness of it all.

"Mine is two. Your hobbies?" he asked.

"Well, reading, playing the piano... anything that eases the mind, I guess."

"Cool. I can play some instruments too. And I rlike reading. Sora thinks it's stupid, though, because it would waste your time. It's just that it's so hard for him to sit down and be silent for at least three seconds. No wonder that he doesn't like reading that much."

Hailey laughed. She wasn't really surprised to hear that about Sora, she had expected him to be like that.

"Okay, which instruments do you play then?" she asked.

"The drums and the guitar."

"Whoa, really? So cool! Could you play something for me? Only if you want to of course."

_Please say yes, please say yes!_

That would give her another excuse to be around him for a while...

"On one condition," he said.

Hailey looked questioning at him. "What condition?"

_Oh no, here it comes..._

"That you spend the break here tomorrow, too."

She hadn't expected to hear that, but she wasn't disappointed, either. On the contrary.

"I guess I don't have a choice. Okay, deal," she laughed.

The more he asked her something, the more she started to like him. Some questions were funny. Other questions made her think about her life. She couldn't help but kept looking at his perfect face and his perfect smile. He really had a great attraction for her. How was it even possible that someone like Riku didn't even have a girlfriend? Well, of course it was only good for her now, but still...'

"Describe your dreamguy."

Those three words interrupted her train of thoughts, making her return to reality again. She looked at him. He was serious!

_Well, my dream guy looks exactly like you. So why don't you look in the mirror. Then you'll get an idea about my dream guy._

"Ehm... well... he has to be nice. He has to love me very, very much. He has to be honest, caring and protective too. His eyes should be beautiful. I don't really care for the rest. Although I won't say no to someone who has all this things I mentioned, while he's charming and attractive too."

He smiled. "Now that's a list. Well, I hope for you you'll find such a guy."

She smiled. Actually, that guy was standing right in front of her, but he hadn't noticed her yet. She hoped he did very soon, though.

"And your dream girl? Tell me something about her," Hailey said.

"She has to be a little mysterious, nice, not too hyper, not too much like those girly girls I'm used to see. She has to be my light. Someone who cares about me, even if I won't ever look the way I look now. She has to love me because of the way I am. Not because of the way I look like, or because of my talents. But it's kinda hard to find a girl like y- uh, that," he admitted.

_And yet, I found her. I finally found my light, after all these years,_ Hailey heard his voice saying this in her head.

_Not those random voices again!_ she thought, groaning inwardly.

Just when she had almost forgotten about them, they had to come back?

* * *

Riku brought her right in time to where her next class would be. He had slowly changed from the quiet loner into a funny gossip monger. He kept talking about random yet funny stuff. She couldn't get enough of him and his stories about his friends and the crazy and weird teachers here. When the bell rang, he stayed with her a little longer, so she wouldn't be alone all the time.

_I don't want him to go away!_

"Well, have fun. I have history now, from a guy who's even more boring than Mr. Dilan. That makes you think, doesn't it?" he asked.

"Uh-huh. Then I wish you good luck!"

Then they heard footsteps behind them, so they turned to look who it was.

Marina arrived at their sides, smiling brightly when she saw the silver-haired male was there, too. "Riku!" she yelled, as soon as she noticed Riku standing there.

She waved at him, while a smile appeared on her face.

_Oh please. Not her again. Ugh, just what we needed._

It was Riku again, but Hailey actually thought exactly the same.

"Okay, now I'm really off. Sorry," Riku said.

At least now she knew the reason, and thank heavens, it wasn't her.

"It's okay. Thanks for everything," Hailey laughed.

"Anytime."

_Oooh, he said anytime! ...Okay, stop it._

And he was off before she could say something else.

"Wow, Riku really is in a hurry today. He didn't even wave back," Marina noted amazed and a quite disappointed.

_Well, duh. He has a reason to be. He was running away from you, girl. Don't you even think about getting in my way!_

"Yeah, he was getting late for history class, he said."

"Ah, I see. That teacher really is a prick... Wait a second, was he all this time with you?" Marina asked disbelieving, when realisation hit her.

Hailey quirked an eyebrow. Was she being just surprised, or jealous and suspicious?

"Uh, yeah. Why do you ask?"

"What did you two do?"

Talking about curiosity. Not that it actually was her business, though.

She decided to give an as vague answer as she could. She was sure that Riku would appreciate that, too.

"We talked."

"About what?"

"Well, about a lot of random stuff. Why?" Hailey asked again.

"Whoa! Didn't you know? He's not such a talker, at all. That means he must really like you, 'cause the only other girl he talks to, is Kairi, and sometimes even Selphie. Man, you really are lucky!" Marina explained, slightly jealous.

_Wait a minute... Not such a talker? Déja vu!_

_...Does he really like me? Or does he only hang around with me because I'm a newbie or because he feels sorry? Maybe he won't hang around with me anymore when I get other friends..._

That thought really hurt her somehow.

"Anyways, this lesson won't continue, 'cause Mr. Axel, our physics teacher, is absent. I heard he's still on vacation, the lucky basterd," Marina told her. "Wish I could say the same. I wonder where he went to?"

"Oh, very well, then," Hailey replied, not really paying attention to the other things she said, because right then, another thought popped into her head.

_Hey, maybe I can get a map of this school now somewhere. I really don't want to go back to Xehanort again. Not even a fool would like to do that, but I think he has a map in his office. Isn't that what he had said to me this morning?_

"So what are you going to do now? Shopping? Take a nap?" Marina asked.

A nap? At this time of the day? Was she insane? It didn't matter, though, because she had some other plans.

"Nah, I think I'm going to the library," Hailey lied, "you know, to do some homework and maybe other stuff, like reading, or something."

"Oh, okay. Then I'm going with you. I thought shopping was more fun, though. But I don't want to go shopping on my own. I didn't know that there were still people on the islands who liked reading... It's kinda boring, don't you think?"

_Uh... no._

She started to chat and thought that Hailey was listening to her. In fact, Hailey was trying to come up with a plan to get rid of her, so she had finally some peace.

_Oh man. How can I escape from her? It looks like we're glued together for the rest of our lives. I have to dump her somewhere. But how? And where?_

Then she had an idea. "Um...okay. Why don't you go ahead? I...am going to the toilets first. I think I drank too much water, you see?" Hailey lied again.

_Man, I think lying is another talent I found. I'll be a pro if I continue lying like that... Hmm, maybe it's not something to be proud of._

"Okay, see ya! Don't stay away too long, though," Marina said, probably happy that she had some company for the next hour.

"Don't worry, I won't!" she assured the girl.

...Or so she hoped.

Hailey swiftly walked into the toilets and counted to ten. At first, she wanted to do the same as Sora had done today, escaping through a window and then come back to school again, but then she figured that it would take too much of her time. And there was no time to lose now. Besides, it would look weird if someone caught her this way. Sora was probably lucky that nobody saw him. Or maybe he had done it so many times that people honestly didn't care anymore.

After she had counted to ten, she opened the door again. Fortunately, Marina was nowhere to be seen, which meant that she had left already, waiting for her in the school's library.

A relieved sigh escaped her lips then. _Fiew, I thought she would never leave me alone anymore. I'm glad I know where Xehanorts office is, so I won't get lost this time._

At once, she went to his office, praying that he wouldn't be in there. The door was shut.

She knocked on the door. "Hello?"

She waited for a reply. There was no answer. So that meant he wasn't there... or he was sleeping and hadn't heard the knock, but she doubted the latter. Lucky her! What a chance. It was almost too easy this way...

She opened the door and noticed that it went easily. Nobody was in the room. He hadn't even locked the door! How stupid of him, but good for her. Now where should she start with searching? Hailey decided to start with the nearest cupboard. However, she found nothing in it.

_Hmm... maybe it isn't as easy as I thought it would be. Perhaps he isn't that stupid as I thought... So now what to do?_

Maybe she had more luck if she looked through his desk? She decided to try it right away and was surprised to find a map in the second drawer.

_Hah, bingo!_

She looked at the map carefully and saw that it was a map of the school. Then she heard something. Footsteps. Some talking people were coming nearer and nearer! She heard Xehanorts angry voice, too.

Ugh, why in hell's name did this always happen to her alone? Where could she hide herself best? The cupboard was probably too full with papers and other unimportant stuff. Maybe behind the curtains? No, that was certainly not a good idea. They were too short. He could see her feet on hundred miles distance. Under the desk? No, that was even a worse idea. What if he sat down? How was she supposed to escape then? Maybe...

At that moment, the heavy door open with a huge sweep. Hailey sat right in time on the cupboard, behind two extraordinarily dusty boxes. It wasn't comfortable, though, but she had no other choice.

_I hope I don't have to sneeze because of all that dust here. Has he never heard of cleaning or something? Talking about hygiene with a capital H..._

"I guess you already know why you're here, right?" Xehanort asked, as soon as he sat down on his black desk chair.

Hailey tried to look to whom he was talking, but she had to be very careful. One wrong move and those two boxes would fall from the cupboard and then he would see her. The thought alone made her shiver already.

"No, not really... Sir," someone answered, almost sarcastically.

It didn't take Hailey too long to recognize that voice. It was Riku! That was the last person she expected to see here. What was he doing here with _him? _He wasn't in trouble, now was he?

"Ugh, do I really have to explain you everything first? Fine then, you fool. You can't even think for yourself..."

Riku looked around in boredom, when Xehanort started to explain him everything. He didn't pay much attention to him. But then again, who would if they had been in his place? Then he looked right into Hailey eyes. Her eyes widened, just like his, at the same time. He was obviously dumbfounded to find her of all people, there. Hailey put a finger on her lips, while she prayed that he wouldn't tell Xehanort anything about here presence here.

_I didn't plan this at all. I hope he won't say anything to Xehanort. Maybe then everything's gonna be alright._

Riku nodded slowly. Hailey thought that it was his way to show her that he wouldn't say anything about her. Hailey smiled.

"...So I want you to stay away from Hailey, because one day she'll get into trouble and big problems, all because of you. I won't let this happen, 'cause I love her. She's mine. Did you hear me? Hey, I'm talking to you! What are you looking at? Is there anything that's even more interesting than me in this room?"

_Uh-oh!_

Hailey quickly hid behind the two boxes, before Xehanort would see her, while Riku quickly looked away and feigned innocence. "Uh... nothing. I was just wondering what's in the cupboards, that's all," he made up quickly.

"Well, that's none of your business," Xehanort said irritated.

"I know. But still... and about Hailey, I can't help it that we can get along with each other that well. We've got a lot in common, you see?"

They kept talking for a long while. Hailey was getting sleepy. She couldn't feel her legs and arms anymore, because they had become numb. She couldn't move, though, because if the boxes fell, then Xehanort would see her. And then...

She gulped, not wanting to finish that thought. _I would have been amazed too, if I suddenly saw someone sitting on the cupboard._

_What the heck is she doing there? She's dead meat if Xehanort sees her_, Riku said, once again without moving his lips.

_What I'm doing here? Oh, you know, just hanging around, since my teachter didn't show up. It was this, or being with Marina. Well, the choice was easy to make_, Hailey thought, sarcastically.

_Huh? Then allow me another question: what are you doing in my head? Thoughts of people are private, you know._

It was Riku again.

Her mouth dropped open. _Huh? You can hear me?_

_Of course I can. You're practically screaming in my head. So... are you in my head, or am I in your head?_ he thought.

_I have not even the slightest clue._

_Oh... This is weird._

Fortunately, Xehanort hadn't noticed anything about the interaction that was happening between Hailey and Riku.

_Could you help me, please? Make him leave, or something, 'cause I can't hold it here anymore._

_But then you owe me a favor,_ he thought.

_You know, right this moment, I don't really care. Now hurry up!_

_Okay, okay. Just saying..._

Thank god he listened to her and told Xehanort to hurry up already, because he was going to be late for his next class.

When Xehanort and Riku left the room, deciding to end their conversation in the hallway, she jumped to the floor, without making any noise.

_I'm glad I've got head for hights._

The door was slightly ajar. Riku and Xehanort were still talking. They were too close for her to escape, though. Great. Now what to do?

* * *

**A/N: ****Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed. ^-^**


	10. IX Partners in Crime

**A/N: Thanks: my friend, CrystalEarth, Buzooka Zooka, icanwalkonwater, HelloKittyKewl and hyuuga sayumari. ****Enjoy reading! ^-^**

* * *

_How can I escape if you two are only inches away and don't move? Do you actually want him to punish me, or something?_

_Hey, it's not my fault! _Riku thought._ This was the best I could do._

_Then please try a little harder, Riku._

_You're easy to talk..._

Hailey just wanted to give him a smart remark when... _BOOM!_

_What the_- Hailey and Riku both thought at the same moment.

She turned around and looked. It was one of those dusty boxes that had been on the cupboard and behind which she had been hiding just a couple of seconds ago. It was fallen on the floor.

_Ugh, why does this always happen to me? And always on moments like this when I definitely can't use it... Why couldn't it wait with falling until I had at least left the room? Why can't Xehanort just clean up his office once and a while?_

_Hailey, what are you doing?_ Riku thought, groaning inwardly and running a hand through his long, silver hair.

"What the hell was that? It came from out of my office! Who's there?"

Xehanort swiftly walked to the door to go check his office, his silver-colored hair swaying after him like a light curtain that moved in a gentle breeze.

"Sir, wait!" Riku yelled, desperately to keep him away from that place, for Hailey's sake and safety.

Xehanort looked annoyed at him, angry that he dared to bug him at such a moment. "Now what?"

"Ehm, well..." Riku started, wrecking his brains to come up with some excuse that he would buy.

Hailey used this chance to exit the room. After all, it was now or never. She pushed the door open open with all her strength. It hit the back of Xehanorts head, exactly like she had hoped it would. The impact of that blow made him fall on the ground. She started to run away, as fast as she could. Riku ran after her. After two stairs, he finally was able to grab onto her right wrist. When she was pulled back to him, she looked surprised at him.

"I know a better way. Follow me," he mumbled.

"Oh, okay. Thanks."

She was glad that he wanted to help him, since he knew the school.

"This way."

He opened a door and quickly nudged her inside. Then he entered the room after her, closing the door behind him. It was very small and dark inside, but they didn't dare to put the lights on. That would only cause Xehanort to find them earlier. She heard her heart beating very fast. Hailey and Riku were practically hugging each other, because of the small size of the room. Not that she thought it was a bad thing. She heard and felt how fast his heart was beating, too. She wanted to lie her head against his chest, but she hadn't time to think how weird that actually was, because there was another big problem, which came closer and closer, literally. She saw a huge threatening shadow of a man appearing, on the other side of the door. It stopped right there and then, ready to pull open the door.

_Oh no, that's Xehanort of course. He'll ask us what we're doing here, standing in the dark, just the two of us. I would have asked it too, if I were him._

"Now what?" she whispered.

"Now this."

Something that she could never even start to imagine, something that she hadn't foreseen and was completely unexpected, happened right that moment. Riku planted his lips on hers and kissed her softly. He put his strong and muscular arms around her waist and pulled her a little closer. She put hers around his neck, as the adrenaline rushed through her body, faster than the speed of light. Even though the kiss was with closed mouth, she couldn't help it when a feeling of pure bliss and euphoria took over her.

_I'm tasting a little piece of heaven right now! Boy, if I could only stop time..._

She felt how he smiled a little bit.

_Huh, did he hear me thinking that?_

She blushed. Then the door opened.

Riku stopped kissing her and sighed. "Now what? We're kinda busy right now. So come back later, will ya? And shut the door behind you. There's too much light coming inside. Thank you very much and see ya later. So... where were we?"

He turned his attention back to her and wanted to kiss her again, but Xehanort coughed.

Riku turned again and now saw who it was. "Whoops. Oh, Mr Xehanort. I didn't see you. I thought you were someone else. I'm sorry-" he started.

Hailey saw that he was smirking, though, almost as if he had hoped that this would happen.

"What were you two doing here?" Xehanort asked, his voice dangerously calm.

_Well, duh. Like you didn't see it_, Hailey thought, still a little dizzy because of what just had happened.

She rolled her eyes and Riku chuckled. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Sir. You couldn't see it very well from there? Can you see it now?"

He turned Hailey and him a little more to Xehanort and kissed her passionately. It tinkled inside of her by now. She felt like she was flying on the highest clouds. But he stopped far too quickly for her taste. Xehanort's face first turned pale and then he turned red and then even purple, like he wasn't breathing and now was suffocating. Unfortunately, Hailey and Riku weren't that lucky, because it didn't happen.

_Wow, talk about scary. O dear, now we really are in trouble..._ Hailey thought, gulping as she felt a sudden feeling of panic rise.

"Did you even listen to me at all?" Hailey wondered to whom he was talking to, when he continued again and made it clear. "Actually, never mind. Did you catch or even try to catch the one who broke into my office?" he asked with a scary calm voice.

Riku held her tighter, like he was scared to lose her, before he answered. "No, I didn't. I'm sorry. I only saw his back. He was too fast for me. But then I ran into Hailey and we ended up here, kissing. Anyway, enough about my love story. How's your head doing? I guess you must have a major headache now," Riku asked, smirking a little.

Xehanort sighed, mumbling something incoherently. "I'm dizzy. I guess everyone would get dizzy if someone slammed a door right in his face."

The corners of the female teen's mouth slightly twitched, curling upwards, but she tried to avoid that. If Xehanort caught her smiling like this, then who knows what he would do to her...

Xehanort looked at Hailey for a moment, before he continued, "I'm going to look for an aspirin. Hailey, what's wrong with you? Kissing a boy like him? Are you nuts? Or did someone slam a door in your face, too? And I thought you actually had a good taste," Xehanort said, while he shook his head.

Hailey couldn't control herself anymore. It felt like she got a mist of madness in before her eyes.

"How dare you? Now listen carefully, Xehanort. What's wrong with _YOU_? There's _NOTHING_ wrong with Riku! He is nice, honest, caring, smart, funny, he's just perfect. I would have been nuts if I wouldn't go after him. And my taste is good enough, 'cause I didn't choose for you! What the hell were you actually thinking, huh? That I could ever fall in love with the killer of my parents and Mia?"

"But you-" Xehanort began.

"Shut up! _SHUT UP_! You tried to kill me after you killed them! Don't think I'll _ever_ forget that! My uncle is dead because of you. My whole life is ruined because of you! If you had known where my aunt had lived back then, you would have killed her, too! Do you call that normal? Do you call that love? I don't think so! So I've got four words of advice for you: leave me alone, jerk!"

"I understand how you're feeling, but-"

"Are you deaf? I said SHUT UP! Now it's my turn to speak!"

Xehanort and Riku looked amazed at her. It was the first time for both of them that they had seen her that mad.

"Do you remember what you told me before? "One who knows nothing, can understand nothing." Do you know what that means? I'll tell you, you know nothing about me, so you can understand nothing about me. I don't want you to get to know me, either, so don't ask me for an explanation anymore! How hard is that to understand?"

Xehanort opened his mouth, probably because he wanted to deny everything, but somebody on the hallway was first.

"Mr. Xehanort! Mr. Xehanort, there you are! Mr. Even said I had to pay a visit to you, again, but I couldn't find you anywhere and-"

"We're not finished yet," Xehanort said, warningly, giving them both a look to show them that he was serious.

Then he walked away. He didn't close the door, probably on purpose.

"Come on. Let's go, before he changes his mind," Riku said softly.

Hailey didn't look at him.

She hung her head as she replied, "...Okay."

They turned and entered the hallway. Hailey turned halfway back again to ask Riku where to go next, but she accidently tripped over a bucket that someone had put there, probably the janitor. She grabbed Riku's arm to steady herself, so that she wouldn't fall on the ground, but she pulled him along in the process.

"Wow!" he cried, taken by surprise.

Hailey fell on the ground and Riku fell half on top of her. "Eh... Oops?" Hailey said, wincing at her sudden clumsiness.

"A little bit clumsy, aren't we?" he said, chuckling.

"Sorry, but unfortunately, not everyone is as perfect as you are, wonder-boy."

"Wonder boy?" he repeated surprised.

His eyes were twinkling of joy.

_Oh... did I actually say that out loud? Drat!_

"Uh, never mind."

"Hmm..." Riku said, with his face was very close to hers. "Okay, then."

After this, he got up, extending his hand out to her to help her get up. She grabbed his hand, giving him a thankful look, as Riku carefully pulled her up. At the same time, the bell rang, again.

_Wow, that soon already? Is it just me, or is time really flying here? Especially when I'm with someone like Riku..._

She swiftly took her schedule out of her backpack and looked at it, searching for her next destination. "I have... biology. Sounds fun if you ask me," she said.

"Hey, I have biology too. That's funny, now we're in the same class, again," Riku noted, but she couldn't tell from his voice whether that was a nice thing or not.

Hailey followed him, since he knew the way around and she didn't yet. She wondered why he had kissed her. Did it actually mean anything, or had he been acting on an impulse? She didn't dare to ask him, though. Maybe he only kissed her because he thought that that was the only way to explain Xehanort what they were doing there, all alone in the dark.'

They happened to be the first students who entered the still empty classroom. The teacher, who was already sitting at the desk, had short, unruly brown hair and he looked kinda grumpy, as if someone had just told him that he would do something he hated. His features were hardened, like he had survived a terrible war. He also looked a little bit scary, because of his hard face. Definitely not someone she wanted to meet in the darkest of nights... That thought made her shiver slightly, but she tried to hide it. Man, what was it with the teachers here? They were all as scary as hell!

"Hang on a sec. I'll be right back, okay? I left my books at the locker," Riku said to her then, interruping her new train of thoughts.

She nodded, almost absent-mindedly. More students entered the classroom. Of course, they were all looking at her first, again. She ignored them the best she could, as she suddenly decided to sit in the back, as far away from the teacher as it was possible. She kept a chair free, just in case Riku would want to sit next to her again, but it wasn't such a hard task, since she still was a newby and gave off those (for her invisible) "Don't-come-near-me" fibes. However, she was surprised to find a boy with fire red hair who kept looking at her. Well, everyone was glancing at her, but _he_ was the most annoying one, because he made it too obvious. He was staring at her as if she was the first girl he had ever seen. At once, she felt one of her eyes twitch out of annoyance.

She wanted to say something along the lines of, "_Jeez, I know I'm very pretty, but why in hells name do you keep looking at me for? It's very annoying, you know?"_ but she decided against it.

Instead, she went for the more smooth, one-worded, "_What?"_ while she gave him a peeved look, hoping he would get the hint and look away.

"Who are you? I've never seen you here before in my whole life," he said, in a very rude way.

_Excuse me?_

For a moment, she didn't know what to say. It almost felt like she had lost her tongue. It was probably because of his strange, almost glowing-in-the-dark-reddish hair.

She couldn't help but stare at it. "Oh, uh-"

"Oh, hi Uh. Nice to meet you," the boy said, happily.

"That's not my name!" she said angrily.

"Oh? But you just said... Then what is your real name, Uh?"

He kept looking at her, which gave her the nerves.

She narrowed her eyes at him, suspiciously, as she started, "My name is-"

"Hey, Wakka!" Riku said, "long time no seen. There you are. And I see you've met-"

"-Umm? Oh, yes, I've met Umm. She's very... different from all the girls I've ever seen."

Riku was dumbfounded, while Hailey bit on her lip to refrain from yelling at this guy.

"Just kidding, just kidding. I already knew your name. Hailey is a beautiful name. My name is Wakka. That's sounds beautiful too, right? Well, it was very nice to meet you, Hailey. I better get going," he said quickly, when he saw that expression on her face.

He was off, before she could yell at him again.

_Wow, doe that mean he's scared of me now?_

"Don't listen to him. He loves to get people on the nerves, but I'm sure you already found that out yourself." He paused when she nodded. "Just try to ignore him when he acts like that, okay?" Riku said softly.

She nodded briefly once again.

Then the class began and the teacher started speaking in a solemn voice. "Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to Biology class. I'll start with the more important news. In two weeks, we're going to start a new project. Something we've never done here before. It's about babies..." At this, the girls exchanged exited glances, while the boys groaned and gave each other pained looks. The teacher ignored them all, as he continued in a louder tone, indicating that they all had to be quiet again, "You'll have a family; so one father, one mother and a baby. I'll give you a doll, but he or she looks and acts like a real baby. It's very a valuable experience and you will have a lot of fun, I suppose. Today you're going to select your partner and..."

_Oh, dear Lord. I hope it's not Wakka. I'm afraid that I won't control myself and that I'll kill him if he acts stupid again_, Hailey thought.

She noticed from the corner of her eyes that Riku was looking at her, smiling a little with a smug look on his face.

"What is it?" she whispered, curiously.

"I know who you're going to choose as your partner for life..." he whispered back.

He did?

"Who?"

"Wakka, right?" he teased.

"O, haha, Riku. You're _so_ funny," she said, sarcastically, while she rolled her eyes. "No, seriously. I think I won't spare him, if he becomes my partner."

He chuckled, believing everything she said.

"...So you can choose your partner now. I'll give you two minutes," the teacher said, flatly, as he turned back to sit down on his desk chair again.

Everyone in the class turned to Hailey and Riku. The girls began to whisper and giggle, while they all looked at Riku. The boys kept staring at Hailey, like she was the most interesting object here in the class.

_Ugh, not again..._

"Hey, I know how to solve this problem," Riku whispered in her ear.

She looked up at him. Was he going to do what she thought he was and what she was secretly hoping for that he would do? It seemed like it.

"How? Tell me."

"Well, why don't we two become partners for life. In that case, you don't have to choose between Wakka and your other great fans."

How she was hoping for this to happen.

"Okay, sure. That's a good one. Poor fans," she said, smirking.

Not that she actually felt so sorry for them, to be honest.

"So Hailey," someone then said.

Hailey turned her head towards the source of the sound. A boy with slightly curly, brown hair and ocean blue eyes, spoke to her. He was handsome. Not as handsome as Riku, but still very handsome. His cheeks gave dimples when he smiled at Hailey. It made him look even cuter.

"What is it, uh...?" she asked with a calm voice.

She knew what was coming now.

"My name is Jake, sweetie."

_Sweetie? Really now? What is he talking about?_

"So what do you think, babe? You, me, and a baby?" he smiled with the most adorable smile he had, hoping to win her heart that way.

His teeth were white and practically blinking in the sunlight, that came through the window next to him. It only made him look more handsome. There was something about him, though. She wasn't entirely sure what to think of it.

"Well? What do you say, girl?" he asked her again.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! ^_^ Will she say yes, despite her partnership with Riku? Read and find out next time. :)**


	11. X Discovered a Secret

**A/N: Thanks: CrystalEarth. ****Enjoy reading! ^-^**

* * *

"Hmph," Riku said, almost angrily.

Hailey was the only one who heard that, though.

"That sounds fun, but I'm sorry. I'm with Riku already," she said, smiling appologetically at the handsome male student.

_Wow, if I hadn't met Riku first, then I would definitely have gone after him... maybe._

The boy looked disappointed and a little bit furious, too, at the mention of Riku's name.

His eyes lit up then. "Oh, really?" he said.

"Yeah, so go and find someone else to stalk," Riku said, fiery.

"Hmph", was all the boy could say. Then he coughed, "jealous jerk-couch couch."

His friend, who was sitting next to him, heard it and laughed. Riku cursed under his breath and Hailey looked surprised at him.

_Wow, this is actually the first time I hear Riku saying something like that. That means it's pretty serious then. I wonder why he's acting this way. He doesn't seem to like this Jake at all. There should be a reason for that._

"You'd better watch out for him. He's a jerk himself," Riku warned her quietly.

"Ehm... okay. If you say so."

_But he doesn't look like a jerk at all. In fact, he's very attractive and he acted nice to me. And he was actually right about the "jealous" part. Riku sounded kinda jealous. Maybe just because he was trying to protect me from Jake. Hey, isn't he the one who thought the new girl is hot? Yeah, he's the one who talked with one of his friends about me, I'm sure. Now I remember._

His voice sounded the same...

* * *

As for the rest of the class, nothing really exciting happened. Everyone was looking forward to the new valuable "baby project," though. Hailey too, of course, and the fact that she had such a great partner, had a lot to do with it.

However, when the bell rang, she was more than glad that her first school day was over and that she could go home again.

"Pff, at last. I thought this day was never going to end," Sora huffed. "I sure have to get used at going to school."

Hailey laughed heartilly at that. "Believe me, I know that feeling," she said.

_Actually, I thought that it wasn't that bad at all. But everybody already knows who I am now. Not only because I'm new around here, but also because I saved Riku and Kairi's butts today, while risking my own._

Hailey was standing on the hallway now, in front of her own new locker. Her locker was near the place where Riku had kissed her earlier that day. She still couldn't believe and forget what had happened just a few hours ago. The butterflies she had, started to fly around somewhere near her stomach when she thought of it again.

When she put some of the books she needed for home in her bag, a big piece of paper fell out of her bag on the shiny tiled floor. She grabbed it and looked suspiciously at it. It was the map she had stolen from Xehanort's office.

_Well, stolen is such a big word. Besides, he had promised to give me one, so I'm only taking what's mine, _she mused.

She gave it a quick look and then put it back into her bag again, before someone else would see it - or worse: Xehanort himself - and then start to ask awkward questions. Not that she had a reason to worry, because everyone else was too busy with packing their own books and other stuff they needed to take home with them.

_Huh, wait a sec! Did I just see what I thought that I saw?_

She took the map out of her bag again and took a good look at it. No, it hadn't been her imagination.

_So I was right. I don't need glasses. That's... good news, I guess... But that's very odd. How is it even possible?_

"Hey, Sora. How many floor does this school have?" Hailey asked him, trying not to sound too inquisitive.

"Uh, three. Why do you ask?"

He looked at her with pure curiosity written in his eyes.

_Oh, I forgot he's one of those guys... Curious as heck._

"Oh, nothing. Just wondering," she answered quickly, swiftly looking away from his rather sharp gaze.

_Man, I'm glad he can't read my mind. Or so I hope. Hmm... that's strange. I remember that I saw four floors when I came here with Tidus. And on the map were four floors too. Does that mean Xehanort has something to hide for us, or are there too less students to use another floor? There's only one way to find out. I'm sure he does have something to hide, though._

"But I remember I saw four floors before I entered the school," Hailey said, casually.

She needed more information about this and she was pretty much sure that Sora would tell her everything she wanted and needed to know about this issue.

"Yeah, well, there actually are four floors, but we're not allowed to go to the fourth floor. The headmaster said that, so we only use three floors of this school. That one room on the fourth floor is called the Forbidden Room. Please don't go there if you don't want any problems with the headmaster," Sora warned her.

She nodded, smiling her thanks for his explanation. "Okay. Thanks a lot, Sora. Well, got to go now. See ya."

"Bye, Hailey. See ya tomorrow!"

Hailey turned and started to walk away from him. She wasn't going home, though. She had something better to do. Something very important. Somethine she just had to check for everyone's safety. After all, Xehanort wasn't someone one should trust that easily. She had enough experience with that.

She went outside. The sun was still shining brightly and the weather was great. Nothing could beat tropical weather. She waited there until the school would get a little empty. Strangely enough, she didn't have to wait very long for that to happen.

_I guess that everyone wants to go home as soon as it's possible. No wonder, seeing who our teachers are. Living nightmares... Okay, now I have to search for a nice safe place where the teachers can't see me._

Soon after that, she found the perfect place, but she had to duck, because it was behind a little wall.

_Ugh, I'm really starting to hate these stupid far too short skirts. I'm sure it was Xehanorts idea to take this as a school uniform for the girls, since he's the only pervert I know around here. It's disgusting, really._

She looked at the map and then back at the school building again to compare the drawing with real life. Four floors. Xemnas had written something on the map, near the fourth floor. She couldn't read it, though. It was too small and you couldn't really call it neat, either.

_Now, I know for sure that I don't need glasses, but wow, Xehanort. Nice handwriting. Really. I'm blown away. It seems that all the teachers here have hand writing problems. Maybe I can help them. Not that my hand writing is nice, but at least it's much better than theirs._

Then she got the strange alarming feeling that someone was looking at her. She swiftly turned around, but there was nobody to be seen.

_How strange. My feelings are most of the time right. Man, what's wrong with me today? First I'm hearing voices of people in my head and now I'm thinking that someone is watching me. It must have been because all the stress and the staring people all the day. I mean, I hope it's because of that... If not, I really have a problem._

She turned back again. Oddly enough, though, the strange feeling stayed. She shook her head, trying to get rid of the nasty thoughts. She couldn't use them now; she had to focus. Suddenly, she felt a strong hand resting on her shoulder, making her heart skip a couple of beats. That made it impossible for her to get up. It felt as though the hand was pressing her down. A soft, utterly shocked cry escaped from her mouth.

_Oh, help! Now it really is game over! What am I supposed to do now?_

"Hailey, what are you doing here all alone? I didn't expect you to be here this late. Aren't you supposed to be at home by now?" she heard a soft voice whisper in her ear.

It tickled slightly, but certainly not in the good way.

She gulped. "Well uh, I was eh... I - I was just..."

She tried to come up with a good and believable excuse, but she was far too shocked for that. It looked like her brain was at a standstill.

_Shit, now I'm caught. How can I save myself from this now? Oh boy, I had to listen to Sora. But what did I? I was too stubborn and I did the opposite. What the hell was I actually thinking? Xehanort has eyes in his back, of course he can see me, no matter where I am! I wouldn't be surprised if he could see right through walls!_

That thought was truly unnerving. She turned and expected to see the worst. It was Riku who had talked to her. Hailey opened her mouth to say something, but when she couldn't think of saying anything, she closed her mouth again.

_I must look very stupid now. What will he think of me? Wait, why do I care? It's just Xehanort, anyway._

"Relax, it's just me. I'm sorry, I didn't want to startle you."

Now she really was dumbfounded. What was he doing here on his own? He was truly the last person she had expected to meet here. Why did he always appear on places she would never expect to find him there? It certainly was a talent.

"Eh... you didn't really. It's just that I thought that I was the only one who was left here. Riku, what are _you_ doing here all alone?"

With the exception of trying to give her a heart-attack, of course.

"Hey, I asked you first!" he laughed, which made her melt completely.

It had been a long time ago that a boy made her feel like this. She didn't even remember when she had her last boyfriend. Gosh, that couldn't be a good thing...

The wind played with some of Riku's beautiful hair. It came in front of his face, which made him look more attractive than ever. He saw that she was looking at it and hastily brushed his hair away from his face. By that single movement, Hailey returned to reality again.

What should she tell him? She couldn't tell him the truth. What if he didn't believe her? Or what if he would laugh right in her face? She didn't even know if she could trust him or not. After all, she didn't know him very well yet...

It seemed that Riku could read her doubts, like it was written all over her face, because he said, reassuring, "Hey, you know you can trust me, right? Haven't I proved that yet? Wasn't I the one who saved you from Xehanort a couple of hours ago?"

Yeah, like she could ever forget that after that kiss.

"And I didn't even ask you what you were doing in his office. Come on, I won't tell anyone, if you don't want, okay? I promise."

How could she say no to the boy with the most adorable smile she had ever seen when he looked at her like that?

"Okay, I'll tell you. I was trying to-"

"Shh," he said, interrupting her, while he put his forefinger on her lips.

She got an electric shock when he did that. Her mind froze immediately. She couldn't think properly anymore, for the second time this day. The butterflies in her stomach tried to let her know about their existence by flying around harder and faster. Then she realized how close he actually was to her. But not close enough, in her opinion. What was happening to her?

"I don't think it's safe here. Let's go to my house. It's not far away form here. You can explain me everything there, okay?"

Going to his house? Being alone with him in the same room? Whoa, of course! He didn't even have to ask that. She nodded swiftly, while she tried not to look too excited at the thought. She didn't want him to change his mind.

She followed him. After a few minutes, she saw that he was right, his house wasn't that far away. In fact, it was next to her house!

"What a coincidence. We are neighbours!" she exclaimed.

"Oh really? How funny. I didn't know that... I don't believe in coincidence, though," he said softly.

"Oh?"

She wondered what he meant with that? That they were actually meant to live next to each other, destined by fate? Well, maybe he was right after all.

"Then what do you believe in?" she asked him.

"I believe in destiny. So according to me, we were meant to be neighbours for some reason I can't explain yet."

She already thought it was something like that. "Ah, I see. Well, maybe you're right, who knows?"

He opened the door and let her go first. She stepped into the empty hallway. Nobody was at home. It was very silent inside and the hearth was out, too.

_Wow. I just can't believe I'm here, in his house. Just an hour ago, I didn't even know where he lived._

"My parents are still at work, so we're alone. Nobody can disturb us," he said, as if he had just read her mind.

_What a timing..._

"Okay."

Hailey curiously looked around. The walls of the living-room were white. The couches were red, just like the curtains. It looked very homey, despite the white walls. On one of the walls, there was a painting of fall, on which orange and red leaves were falling off the trees on the leaf-covered ground.

"Wow, what a beautiful house. Very homey," she said politely, except, she actually meant what she said.

He smiled at that. "Thanks. You're the second girl who's seen my house. Sora has seen my house too, of course."

At this, she perked her ears. What? The second girl? Did he mean that he had a girlfriend already?

_No, please don't! Wait, a second! So he lied to me? Why? Ugh, why do I always have to fall in love with people who aren't interested in me?_

"Oh. Uh, who was the first girl? One of your fan-girls?"

She tried to sound casual and cheerful, although she was the opposite from the inside. Did she actually really want to know it? It would only hurt her more if he confirmed that.

"No. It was just Kairi. She comes here often with Sora. Why do you ask?"

Oh, just great. Why didn't she think of that herself? Now he probably thought that she was one of those jealous types of course, which she was certainly not... she thought. Actually, she was getting a little bit jealous, but that didn't mean that he had to know that, right?

"Oh, just wondering."

"Okay. If you say so," he said, smirking.

She rolled her eyes. She really was relieved, after hearing that. But why was he smirking? At least she had a little chance again, seeing that he was single. Then if it wasn't that important, why did he say such a thing? Was he trying to make her jealous? Well, good for him then, because he succeeded. She wondered how many girls he had saved already... Or kissed. She wasn't going to ask him that, though.

"Do you want to drink something?" he asked.

"Just a glass of water please."

"I'll be right back. Don't go away!"

She laughed. "Don't you worry, I won't."

Like she would want to.

While he went to the kitchen, she looked at all the photos and other pictures and paintings on the walls and on other places. It seemed that Riku had a little sister, because Hailey saw a little girl and Riku on almost all the photos. The girl had the same color hair and stunning eyes as Riku, so that left pretty much nothing to the imagination. She had her long and silver hair in a high ponytail and looked very cute. She looked nine or maybe ten years old. Riku came back with two glasses of water in his hand.

"Here you are."

He handed Hailey one of the glasses. She took it and smiled at him. He smiled back.

"Thanks. So... Is that your little sister?" she asked him, pointing at one of the photos, where she was sitting contently on Riku's lap.

They were both laughing, probably because Riku had ice-cream on his nose.

He nodded. "Yeah. She's ten years old. Her name is Bella. Right now she's playing with one of her best friends, that's why she isn't at home. She means everything to me."

Aww, that was so unbelievably cute? Wish he could say that about her one day, though...

"She does look a lot like you. I can imagine that you means a lot to her, just like she means a lot to you."

Just like Mia was everything to her once. When she was sad, Hailey became even sadder, just because she was so sad. She also couldn't even be mad at her, no matter how hard she tried.

Hailey thought about all the times that she had tried to sound furious. She had known that Hailey was just pretending she was mad and then she had chuckled a little bit.

Hailey had said things like, "That's not funny, Mia! Stop Laughing, will you?"

It didn't help and then Hailey had burst out laughter. Mia had laughed then, too, sensing that there was no more danger for her.

She was the most precious thing in her life. And now she was dead, just like her parents, all because of Xehanort. He would pay for this. She would let him pay for everything he did to her and other people. He would have to come and beg her for forgiveness. Not that she would forgive him. Not after the things he had done. He deserved to suffer, forever.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?"

Riku's voice brought her back to earth again.

She looked away and sighed, because she had expected this question. This would probably shock him.

* * *

**A/N: Can you guess who that person is? I bet you can't. ****Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed! :)**


	12. XI The Forbidden Room

**A/N: Thanks: CrystalEarth**

* * *

She could only wish she still had a sister...

"No. Not anymore. Xehanort killed my sister and my parents in a car-accident. That's why I freaked out all the time when he was near me, the bastard."

Riku let out a surprised noise that looked much like something between a gasp or a hiss. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Hailey."

He put an arm around her shoulders and comforted her.

"It's okay. You didn't know. Her name was M-Mia. She was just twelve years old. She was too young to die. Xehanort tried to kill me too, when he heard I was still alive. He knew that I knew about his plans. He also went after my uncle, Ansem, who was his master for quite a long time. Uncle Ansem is now dead, too, all because of him. And another friend I met there... I don't know what happened with him. Xehanort must have killed him too, 'cause I haven't seen him anymore."

Riku silently listened to her story, not interrupting her once. She had tears in her eyes, but she didn't want to cry. At least, not now, because right this moment there were more important things to discuss with him.

So she blinked repeatedly and stubbornly, so the tears wouldn't fall. "That's all I want to say for now, if you don't mind."

"Okay... enough about all this then. You wanted to tell me something?"

No, he wanted an explanation from her. That was definitely not the same thing. Deciding to use some delaying tactics, she walked to one of the couches and took a seat. She sipped water out of her glass. Riku sat down next to her and looked patiently at her. He wasn't pushing her, he just let her take her time.

Now she really had no choice but to start telling him why she was there. "Yes. I know that it may sound very weird to you. No, I'm actually pretty sure that this sounds very weird, but..."

She stopped, not really knowing how to continue. Now that she thought about it some more, the reason she had done that really sounded stupid.

"Yes? Please go on," he said, while he came closer to her.

His arm accidentally brushed against hers. She got that tinkling feeling again.

"Well, the fact is that I don't trust Xehanort at all. I'm pretty sure that he's hiding something for us in the Forbidden Room."

"Huh? How do you know about-" Riku started, his eyes widening in surprise.

"-Sora told me about it when I asked him. I wanted to explore that Forbidden Room, after I found out about it with the map that I had stolen from Xehanort's office."

"What? On your own? But that's very dangerous, Hailey!" Riku almost-cried in an admonishing tone.

"Uh, do you mean the stealing part or the exploring part?"

"Both! What if you got caught? You know how dangerous Xehanort is, don't you?"

"But I have no choice! What if he's planning to kill and ruin another family? I have to stop him before it's too late! Don't you understand?" she said.

Riku thought about her words for quite a long time.

A small frown appeared on his face. Then he said, "Okay, if that's what you really want. But please let me help you. And I'm pretty sure that Sora and Kairi want to help us too. But you'll have to tell them about this. You can trust them. Really. Man, I already told Sora once that I didn't trust Xehanort either, but he wouldn't listen. Now he'll have to believe us."

She thought about it. "Okay. Let's tell them," she said.

He smiled, at the exact same time that the doorbell rang.

"I didn't expect my parents home that soon. They're normally at work until five O'clock."

He got up to open the door, leaving her behind with her own thoughts. Hailey was getting nervous. What if it was Xehanort, asking who had stolen his map? He surely had found out by now, right? After all, no matter how evil he was, he wasn't stupid.

"I could have known it was you again! You never leave me alone, do you?" Riku said loudly, his joking tone evident.

Hailey could hear he was very glad to see that person, though, so it could never be Xehanort. Then who was that? Was it... a girl? Right at that moment, Riku came back again. Then Hailey saw that Sora and Kairi were with him.

"No, of course not. Then we would miss all that fun you have right now," Sora answered laughing.

Oh. Of course. Who else could it be?

"Hey Sora. Hey Kairi," Hailey greeted them happily, relieved that it was just them.

What a timing they had. She couldn't deny, though, that she secretly wished she had some more time to be alone with Riku. But this was better.

"Hey! I didn't expect you here. What are you doing here all alone with Riku?" Kairi asked, kinda suspicious.

Hailey shrugged. "Oh, you know. Just talking and stuff," she replied.

She looked at her like she finally got it, like she finally knew how much she liked Riku. But she said nothing. Hailey started to blush slightly.

"So, may I ask what you two really are doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at the Islands and kissing each other to death, like you always do?" Riku teased.

"Oh, just shut up. Looks like you like that idea and you were trying it with Hailey, right? But we interrupted you. I knew you liked her more that you admitted. I saw it when you looked at her like you never look at a girl. I was starting to think that maybe you didn't like them," Sora said smirking.

"So what if I was kissing her? Are you jealous?" Riku said.

He started to smirk too.

"Ehm, maybe this isn't the right time for this. Sora, Kairi, I have to tell you something," Hailey interrupted, quickly trying to change the subject.

At least there was one person who looked interested; Kairi.

"Hah! I knew I was right! So tell me Riku, is she a good kisser?" Sora asked immediately.

Riku smirked and nodded. "A great kisser if you ask me."

Those words made Hailey blush even more.

"I don't think she meant that, Sora. What is it, Hailey?" Kairi said annoyed, but Hailey knew she was just acting.

When Riku said she was a great kisser, Hailey had looked at her from the corner of her eyes, for a short moment. Kairi's eyes had widened a little bit, probably in surprise. She couldn't blame the girl, though. After all, she wasn't that special, so why would Riku even think of kissing her.

"Well..." Hailey started.

She told them everything she just had told Riku. They listened and didn't interrupt her. She was glad they didn't, because that would have made it only harder for her. When she told them about her doubts, Sora and Kairi gave each other a meaningful look and nodded at the same time, like they were thinking exactly the same as she did.

"Riku thought exactly the same as you, you know?" Sora said.

Hailey nodded. "Yeah, I know. He told me about it," she said.

"He did? But... Riku never tells anyone what he thinks. He mostly keeps it to himself if he doesn't know or trust the person good enough," Sora said surprised, while he widened his cerulean eyes.

"Oh really?" Hailey asked, sounding even more surprised than Sora.

Did that made her... special? She couldn't see that Riku started to blush madly and then quickly looked away, trying to avoid all possible stairs.

"So, what are we going to do now?" Kairi asked.

"Well, we have to stop him, of course. So any ideas are welcome," Hailey answered.

Everyone thought for a while. Nobody seemed to have an idea, though.

_We have to hurry! What if Xehanort knows that we know that he has a secret? Man, this is getting far too complicated._

"_Oh_!" Kairi suddenly yelped, putting a manicured hand in front of her mouth.

Everyone looked astonished at her.

"Ehm, Kairi... are you okay?" Sora asked, while Hailey and Riku both sniggered.

"Of course. I have an idea!" Kairi said excited.

"Well, what are you waiting for? A standing ovation? What's your idea?" Riku asked.

"It's brilliant. This is what we're gonna do..."

* * *

Everyone had to admit that her plan was quite easy to do. Well, the part that Hailey had to do was actually quite difficult. Hailey, Sora, Kairi and Riku ran back to school together. Fortunately for them, there was nobody to be seen there. Kairi, Sora and Riku would distract the teachers by telling them about an idea for a disco party at school, because the school had started again and it was a new year (the theme had been Kairi's idea). Then, when the coast was clear, Hailey would have to go to the Forbidden Room, all on her own, because the teachers wouldn't punish her that hard if they noticed her. She was "the new one," so it was impossible for her to know about this Forbidden Room. Riku had offered to go with her, but Sora and Kairi said it was far too dangerous for him to go with Hailey. Such a pity, though.

"Okay, we'll see you back at Riku's house. Good luck!" Sora said, his thumbs up.

"Thanks. You too," she replied, starting to feel quite nervous now.

Sora and Kairi started to run to Xehanorts office. Hailey wanted to run away, too to the opposite direction, but Riku grabbed her by her wrist, making her bump into him. She turned and looked at him. She couldn't help but notice that he really did look worried and slightly pale. But that could also just be the lighting here.

"What is it?" she asked him.

"Hailey, please be careful."

"Of course. I'm always careful."

He chuckled. "Yeah, I noticed when we were in his office," he said, sarcastically.

She rolled her eyes and added, "Yeah, just like you."

Riku smiled. Then he ran after Sora and Kairi. Hailey quickly went to the fourth floor. There was no time to lose. When she arrived there, the first thing that she noticed was that there were two windows and four doors. By the looks of it, two doors were of the toilets, so she opened another door. It seemed to be a supply room full with random stuff, from tables and chairs to blackboards and markers. It almost looked like everyone who had ever attended this school had dumbed the stuff they didn't need in here at some point in their lives. She fervently hoped that his secret wasn't hidden here in this room, because then she would have to search for it for weeks. She didn't have that much time. Maybe she would have more luck if she tried the other door first, just to see what was in there. She tried the fourth door. It was locked. That fact, however, only confirmed her suspicions.

_Well, well. I think I've just found what I was looking for: the Forbidden Room. But how can I get inside when the door's locked?_

She looked around her in hopes to find a clue. When she didn't, she went to the supply room. There was nothing there she could use. She couldn't do anything without the keys she needed, though, so... now what?

_Hmm..._

This time, she walked to one of the windows and tried to open it. It was quite hard, because it was an old window, but finally she managed to open it. It creaked slightly and it didn't go that easy. She looked outside. The height made her head almost spin around. She quickly grabbed the windowsill, before she would fall out of the window in her dizzyness.

_Wow, that was really close!_

She quickly scanned through the area around her and above her. That was when she saw that there was another window and it looked like it was a window which could bring her inside this oh so famous Forbidden Room. Maybe she could climb to that window and then she would get inside that room. She just hoped that she could open that window too, before falling down from such a great height.

She climbed through the window and tried not to look at how high she was now from the ground. That would only made her worry and fall. Very slowly and step by step she walked to the other window on the extremely thin ledge. She was very carefully not to fall. Riku would probably get a stroke if he ever found out what she was doing right now. So she'd better not tell him, unless she really had no choice. Okay, she was almost there. Now she only had to-

She slipped and almost fell, but she managed to grab something right in time and pull herself up. Her heart was beating so fast, that it almost hurt.

_Whoa, that was a close one! I almost got a stroke myself, before killing myself! Now I'm certainly not gonna tell Riku about this!_

She succeeded and wanted to look through the window, when she heard voices coming from the other side. She recognized one of the two voices. It was deep, haunting and taunting.

_Xehanort. I knew it! Man, I must be very lucky that he didn't see me. I can only imagine what would've happened if he hadn't talked and I had just entered the window..._

She shivered unintentionally at that thought.

"So uncle. Are you ready with wining and yelling at me like an idiot, 'cause I want to finish this book for the seventh time. Why don't you go and pester some students, like you always do, you perv? 'Cause believe it or not, but I know exactly what's going on on your perversive mind," an unknown voice said.

_Uncle_? She chuckled. _Yep, that sounds like the Xehanort I remember. This guy seems to know a lot about Xehanort. Maybe even more than I do. But then... who is that guy?_

She took a risk as she peered through the open window. She saw Xehanort and another man she actually didn't know. He had long, spiky fire red hair and emerald green eyes. She could also see that he had black tattoos under both of his eyes. That was definitely not the type she had expected to see here!

_Hmm... I'm wondering which hair gel he's using... and how much, 'cause it's actually doing its work..._

Xehanort sighed, like there was no hope left for this guy. "You know, a little bit respect is always welcome here."

"Ehm... okay, if you say so. Why don't you call me when you find someone who deserves some respect? If you can find someone here, which I totally doubt!" the red haired man said.

Xehanort growled, obviously trying to calm himself and not to bash someone's head against the brick wall. "I'll come back later. And I don't wine and yell at you like an idiot, you pathetic fool," Xehanort said, before he left the room.

"No, of course not. You're wining and yelling at me like a super idiot. One who can't even get a wife. So you try to steal your master's wife. _Tch._ Who's the pathetic fool now, _huh_?" the man said, while rolling his eyes.

"I'm not a pathetic fool!" Xehanort yelled, furious now.

"No, I know. You're worse."

Xehanort walked away and slammed the door shut, without saying as much as another word.

It really was good to see him that mad for once...

But she wondered what this man meant with "So you try to steal your master's wife"?

Well, at least she knew now what he was trying to hide for everyone. It was this man. But who was it? Why did Xehanort lock him up here, like he was so dangerous? He didn't really look that dangerous, to be honest. Was this man the reason that this floor was prohibited for students? Whoever he was, she was starting to like this guy.

"Ai! Someone is a little bit mad and grumpy and just lost a little bit control. It looks like I already know his weak spots," the man said, smirking triumphantly.

She looked carefully through the window again. Her heart almost stopped beating when she looked right in the red haired man's brilliant green eyes. His eyes widened with disbelief. She quickly ducked away, as if that would help her now not to be seen by the man at all.

_Shit, he saw me! How stupid of me! Now what? Will he call for Xehanort? Is he going to tell him what he just saw?_

"Hey, I saw you... well, sort of... I think. Why don't you show yourself, like a real man would do, huh? There's no need to hide yourself from me. I won't harm you, I promise," the man said.

At least he sounded honest, but it could be a trick, of course. After all, she didn't know him well enough to know that he was speaking the truth. Could she trust him? Should she take this risk? Not that she actually had a choice, though. Besides, he was getting Xehanort on his nerves, so didn't that almost automatically prove enough that he was a good guy... or at least neutral?

"What are you waiting for? For the grass to grow? If you're afraid that I'll call Xehanort, then you don't have to worry. I don't like him at all, so why should I? Besides, he won't listen to me, anyway. He won't believe me at all. He never does," the man tried to talk her into showing herself again.

_Well, I guess there's just one way to find out which side he's on. I hope I'm not getting too much into trouble._

She sighed. It seemed that she really had no choice.

So she showed herself to him again and climbed through the window, her eyes never leaving his, just in case he would try something funny. "Ehm...hi?" she said.

_Ehm...hi? What an original start of a conversation. How embarrassing!_ she thought, as she felt how a blush slowly crept up her cheeks.

The man widened his eyes when he saw her.

He did look amazed as he stuttered, "Y-you're a... _girl_!"

_Wow, it was about getting time that you noticed that, dude._

He opened his mouth and she saw that his mouth formed the word 'Wow!' It looked quite funny to be honest.

She chuckled. "Yes, I'm a girl. Surprised?" she asked him, slightly amused at this point.

"That's even an understatement! I did never expect someone like you to appear here! Nice move, though."

She wasn't too sure what he meant with the first comment, but out of politeness, she still said, "Thank you."

"Wait... what are you doing here anyway? It's not allowed for students to come here, didn't you know that? How did you get here, anyway, this is the fourth floor! And who are you? I've never seen you before... Unless... Wait a second, are you Hailey?"

* * *

**A/N: Hmm... what does Axel have to do with all this? You'll find out soon enough. ****Thanks for reading! ^-^ I hope you enjoyed it. :)**


	13. XII Sweet Escape

**A/N: ****Thanks: native-kitten, AGCourtney and CrystalEarth. ****Enjoy reading! :)**

* * *

Now it was her turn to be utterly dumbfounded. Her dark thin eyebrows shot up in pure surprise and disappeared into her hairline. How did he know her name when they had never met before?

"Xehanort mentioned your name," he explained, when he saw the expression that crossed her face. "My name is Axel, by the way. That's A-X-E-L, got it memorized?"

"Sure," she said, smiling.

It was silent for a moment, but then the man asked, "Are you doing this every day, because it's kind of weird, don't you think?"

Her brows knitted together in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Climbing through the window, instead of using the door."

He pointed to the door.

Hailey started to laugh. "Oh, that? No. This was my first time. And I hope the last."

"Oh. You really look like a pro, if you ask me."

Hailey chuckled. "Thanks."

At least now she knew for sure that he was a good guy. And a funny one. She was glad that not everyone was like Xehanort. That would've been a creepy world.

She looked around. The room was not that big. It actually looked quite gloomy. She saw a blackboard, a bookcase, a bed, two wooden chairs with a spotless wooden table and a big wooden desk with papers and pens on it. It was such a mess here. How was it possible for him to survive here?

"How long have you been sitting here, all on your own?" she asked him.

"Let's see... about a week, I think. But don't worry, they bring me food if I need it and if they don't forget..."

Hailey gasped, her dark chocolate-colored eyes widening in pure shock. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. Were the people here really that heartless?

"What?"

When he saw how shocked she looked, he continued, "Hey, that didn't happen yet, I was just kidding. And I also have a mirror here, so that I can do my hair. So I'm pretty content," he answered smiling.

"Oh."

She then took her time to look around some more. On the wooden table was a chiq, thin and silver expensive-looking serving tray with several beautiful glass figurines on it. Upon closer inspection, she found out that the figurines were made of crystal. Especially the statues of the cat, the cock and the peacock caught her attention immediately. It was like she had seen those statues somewhere before. They were so familiar to her, but she couldn't remember where exactly she had seen them.

"Poor you! I would never survived here... Hey, aren't you the physics teacher, Mr. Axel? You were absent today. Someone told me that you were still on vacation," she noticed. "So I guess it was just a rumor."

_A physics teacher with fire red hair. How suitable_, she couldn't help but think.

"So _that's_ the excuse Xehanort is using. I was wondering why nobody even tried to go look for me, while I'm a pretty popular teacher. I thought they all didn't care..."

He sounded very sad all of a sudden, much like a lost, kicked puppy. She started to feel for him.

She wasn't that surprised to hear that Axel was a popular teacher, since he was the only normal one she had met so far. "That's not true. I've heard that every student here thinks you're cool, because you're not like those other teachers," Hailey said, instantly trying to cheer him up.

"Oh! That's always a good thing to hear. That really makes my day. So, it seems that we both knew more about each other, before we even have met each other. Funny, don't you think?"

She nodded. Meanwhile, Axel grabbed the delicate figurine of the peacock and examinated it thoughtfully. It shone beautifully and glisterned when the sunlight shone through it. Glass definitely didn't shine like that.

_So it is crystal. Wow, wish I had such a beautiful figurine. And he seems to like it too, otherwise he wouldn't have looked at it like that._

Without a warning, Axel suddenly let go of it and it fell on the ground, breaking when it made contact with the hard ground.

"_Oops_!" Axel said, smirking, even though he didn't sound surprised at all.

_Is he nuts? Why did he do that? It was such a beautiful figurine! Well, guess he didn't like it that much, then_, she thought, shocked beyond belief.

But that still didn't explain his particularly odd behavior.

"Hmm... I'm getting hungry. I wonder what they'll be serving for dinner today," he said softly.

"I don't know. They didn't tell me," she answered, almost absent-mindedly.

He started to laugh, almost like a maniac, which turned her back to reality. Okay... now he really was scaring her. What was wrong with him? Maybe he was acting like that because he'd been locked up for too long. The poor guy.

He grabbed another figurine from the silver tray now. This time it was a beautiful swan, its long neck curled in slightly to give it an almost magical effect.

He examined this one too, while frowning slightly. "Not that you can keep in the food they make here. You'd better watch out what you eat in the canteen, girl. The last time they brought me something, the meatloaf was as hard as a rock. I almost lost a tooth. And then the potatoes... they were alive, seriously! For me it felt like I was trapped in one of my worst nightmares!"

He shivered.

"Eew!" Hailey said, while she shivered too.

"Yeah, _tell_ me about it."

It certainly was good to know all this. Today was the last time she ate something from the canteen! She didn't want to die already! Not with such a jerk as Xehanort prancing around the school as its headmaster. She bet he knew about all this and he did this on purpose. But the pizza was tasty today, she had to admit that. However, she didn't think she wanted to know how it was made and what the ingredients of it were...

Axel then broke the other statue too, like he was doing this every day as some exercise.

"Oops, I'm getting clumsy. Must be because I'm so hungry."

_If he doesn't like the figurines, then he can give them to me. It's such a sin to break these, they're so beautiful!_

"So... which book were you reading?" Hailey asked, deciding to change the subject, before he would break the whole room down.

"Oh this?" He grabbed the book from the table in front of him. "It's called _'The struggle continues_.' It's a really good book. You know, the writer is Veronica. She lives here, on Destiny Islands, too. I don't know her very well, but she's a good and and attractive writer. I heard she's great at cooking too. Wish she could prepare my food."

Veronica? Was that... Could it be-

"Oh really? May I look at it?" she asked him, curious now.

"Sure."

He handed her the thick book. It was quite heavy, but she wasn't surprised by that. She gave it a good look. Her suspicions were right. It was her aunt Veronica who had written this book. She saw from the corner of her eyes that Axel took another figurine from the table and started to examine it. It was a cat. Then she looked at the back of the book, to the summary. It said:

_The day that Darkness overcame all the worlds, Violet had to leave her hometown and hide herself for the man who wanted to kill her. She had to leave her husband and move to a place she didn't even know, just because she was in danger. One of the apprentices of Aron, Violet's husband, was planning something dark. He wanted to take over the worlds. __You will see everything from the eyes of Violet, Aron and Hailey, the niece of Aron. Hailey is in danger too. Aron and Violet are the only relatives that Hailey has. What will happen next and will anyone survive this dark time? All we can say in such times are,_

_When Light turns to Dark, the Calm becomes the Storm._

_When Reality is a Dream, then Good must face Evil._

_Courage is the Key._

_Unlock your Destiny._

_Understand everything you can..._

That sounded pretty familiar. Apparently, she was famous and she didn't even know that!

"My aunt wrote this. It's her autobiography... well, sort of," she told Axel.

"Really? Then... you're the same Hailey from this book, right? I'm a big fan of yours, you know!"

She smiled. "Oh, thanks. I'm so flattered!"

She saw that Axel lost his grip on the figurine. It was going to fall. Something inside of her screamed that she had to save that figurine, no matter what.

So she trusted her instinct for the third time that day and jumped to the statue to grab Axel's arm. "No stop, don't do it!"

She was right on time.

Axel looked surprised at her. "Why not? These are not mine. They're from Xehanort, so who cares what happens with it?" he said.

She bit on her lower lip, looking away. "...I do."

"What? Do you even know what you're saying?" Axel asked, thoroughly surprised.

She looked at the figurine again. It attracted her a lot, but she had no idea why. She gave the statue a good look. Maybe she would find something rare on it... anything. But there was nothing strange she could notice about it, not even a scratch.

"What's wrong?"

"It's kinda hard to answer that question, when nothing is right," she answered, almost absent-mindedly.

"Wow. That's a deep one! It sounds almost like you're a philosopher!"

"Thanks."

She thought about all this for a while. Maybe her aunt Veronica knew what to do. The chance was big that she could help them.

"Axel, we've got to get out of here before Xehanort comes," she said, feeling her panic rise already and constrict her throat at the fear of getting caught.

Axel looked at her. "I don't want to discourage you or something, but what do you think I tried to do this whole week? How did you want to escape? The door is locked, remember?"

As if she didn't know that already. It was the main reason why she had used the window instead.

"I know how to escape. We just follow back the way I came here. Piece of cake!" she answered.

"But I think you forgot one little thing."

Oh really?

"What?" she asked, curiously.

"Hailey, have you been sleeping all this time or are you always that slow? Maybe you've missed some information, very important information I might add, but this is the fourth floor we're talking about! The _fourth_!"

He showed her four of his fingers to make his point ultra clear.

As if she didn't know that already. She could count too, believe it or not. He didn't have to stress that much.

"One misstep and we're both dead! _Pancakes_! It's far too dangerous. I'm not an expert, like you. I also can't fly. I don't have wings or something. I only have fire."

Well, she didn't have any wings, either. And how did he think that she came here?

"Hmm..." she only said.

She did get why he was scared and she couldn't really blame him for it... Wait, did he just say fire? What about that? It could be of good use.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen. Did you just mention fire? You mean fire as an element?" she asked him.

Axel nodded. It was written all over his face that he didn't know what she was up to yet.

"Well, why don't we use that? I mean, like some kind of rocket, so we can fly out of the window," she suggested.

He seemed to like that idea, because he started to smile again. "Okay, why not. At least that's safe enough for me to try... even though I've never done such a thing before. It shouldn't be that hard, right?"

She tilted her head in confusion. He really was bizarre if he truly thought that flying out of the window, while immitating a rocket was safe enough to try. What was he talking about? It was even more dangerous than the route she had planned to take at first and the chance of being seen was probably much bigger, too.

Suddenly Axel had casted fire in his hands. "Come on, we're leaving, _at last_!" he said with a forming smile on his lips.

The statue of the cat was still in her hands.

She took a look at it and then made a decision. "Wait."

"Now what?" Axel asked, rather impatiently.

"We're forgetting to bring important things with us."

She quickly grabbed Axel's book and another statue with her. This statue was a statue of a rooster. The one that was attracting her so much.

"Now I'm really ready to leave this place. Let's go!" she said.

When he aimed the fire at the ground, he started to float slowly in the air, in the direction of the open window. She quickly grabbed one of his legs with her free arm, so she could fly away with him, too, before he would burn everything behind him. The fire left a mark on the floor, but both of them couldn't care less at the moment. That was how they escaped. They had a beautiful sight here, high in the air. It felt amazing to see all the tiny houses with a garden around them under her and the immense ocean, not so far away, while the wind blew softly through their hair. The salty water was reflecting the sunlight, but not in an annoying way.

Suddenly, she started to remember something that she had completely forgotten. Something very important. The memory suddenly popped into her head, like it had played hide and seek with her first and only now thinking that it was time to show itself to her. The fact was that she knew Axel! She had seen him before! How could she forget about him?

_I mean, man, that hair! Nobody can ever forget that! How stupid am I?_

Her uncle talked a lot about him. He said that he was dangerous for everyone. Especially for Roxas and his plans to wake Sora up and give him back all his precious memories. And she had to watch out for him. Now that she thought about it, she even had fought once with Axel, about a year ago...

* * *

**_~Flashback, one year ago~_**

"Hailey, quick! Come here!" Ansem the Wise, Hailey's uncle called.

"Yeah, I'm coming, uncle!" she yelled back.

If there was a chance that she could find him, that is. She couldn't help but think that that sounded like he had just commanded one of his slaves instead of his own niece! She hoped for him that it was important enough. Maybe he was in trouble. She guessed that he probably couldn't find Naminé again. It was always something stupid like that. And she was always panicking for nothing, never learning from it. She'd better check it out, though, since one could never know for sure with him.

She ran as hard as she could to the place from where his voice came. He was in his computer room, as usual. That didn't surprise her. She could always find him there, even when he was taking a break from his work. The other Ansem was there with him, too, which wasn't an entire surprise, either. Those two men were like always together, joined at the hip. She often found herself wondering why. Maybe there was something about them that she didn't know yet. Something that they refused to tell her... Nah, what was she thinking?

She tried to stop smirking, because she felt how the other Ansem was looking at her. She never saw his face, but still, she could feel when he was looking at her and to be honest, it was kinda creepy. Therefor, she was more than glad that he couldn't read minds (as far as she knew, at least), otherwise he would totally freak out from some of her thoughts. Not that she didn't want to see that, though.

"Uncle DIZ, what's wrong?" she asked immediately, to change the subject.

She could easily tell that this was pretty serious, because looked and sounded worried.

"He has come, just like I had expected," he answered.

Hailey rolled her eyes.

_Thanks a bunch, uncle. At least I know now who or what you're talking about!_

"Who? Who has come? I would like to hear a name," she suggested, quite impatiently.

She really couldn't stand it when people gave her some important piece of information, but just not enough for her to understand what was really going on. It happened all the time, though, and that made her feel quite frustrated and impotent.

"He means Axel," the other Ansem quickly answered, filling in the silence.

He knew which things she hated. He also knew how dangerous she could be if anyone was annoying.

_Axel?_ she mused. _Okay, I've heard of him before. Isn't that-_

She looked up at him, to the point where she thought his eyes would be. "Oh! Do you mean that guy with-" She pointed at her hair and lifted it up, so it looked a little like they were spikes, standing erect. "-That funny, fire red spiky hair?"

He nodded briefly and said, "If you can call that funny. I'd rather call it a disaster."

She laughed at his dry answer. She like that kind of humor, though. Why did he always know what to say to make her laugh? Ansem was definitely not like other men, it was much more fun with him. Almost as if he actually wasn't completely grown up yet.

"Why is he here in this town again? What does he want now?" she asked.

Ugh! Why didn't they just explain everything to her? She really hated it when this happened!

"He wants to take Roxas with him. We can't let that happen though, because that will mean that all the work we did this month would be for nothing," Diz said.

That was true. Then why did he call her out for help?

"Okay. So... what do you want me to do about it then?" she asked again, facing his uncle.

The two Ansem's exchanged glances. She gulped, preparing for the worst. After all, it couldn't be something good if they were giving each other such looks.

* * *

**A/N: Believe it or not, but I had a strange dream about Axel being locked up and how he destroyed those statues, etc., so I thought I might as well use it in my story. Of course I realise that Axel is much smarter than this. Reviews make my day! :)**


	14. XIII Flashbacks and?

**A/N: ****Thanks: XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX, CrystalEarth, native-kitten and xSweetNightmaresx. ****Enjoy reading! ^_^**

* * *

The answer she got, however, didn't seem to be as frightening as she had thought at first...fortunately.

"You have to distract him, even fight with him, if you have to. In the meantime, Ansem and I will bring Roxas to somewhere else. To this room. I'm sure he's safe here," her uncle replied.

"Okay and that's all?" she asked, almost arrogantly.

Distracting him couldn't be that hard. She could always mention something about his hair if she didn't know what to say or do.

"Yes, that's all, but don't let him fool you. He's harder to beat than he makes it look like," her uncle said, warningly.

"Where is he now?" she asked. She saw some movement from the corner of her eyes and turned around. That was when she spotted on one of the computer screens where he was: the red dot indicated that he was near the room where Roxas was still sleeping peacefully. How predictable. If she didn't know any better, she would think that the redhead had a thing for the other Nobody, sine he was pretty much acting like his stalker. "Uhm, you know what? Never mind."

"Then you know what to do, right?" her uncle asked.

"Yup. Good luck you two," she replied.

After all, it looked like they needed it more than she did.

"Good luck."

She quickly left the room and went straight to that direction. It wasn't that hard for her to find him. She decided to take a short cut. She stood in front of the door to Roxas' room, just when Axel arrived at the same spot. He seemed to be surprised at seeing someone blocking his way, but he was quick to replace the awestruck look with a smirk.

"Hey, could you move over? I've got to go into that room and I don't want to use any violence against a pretty girl like you," Axel asked.

Hailey rolled her eyes. Honestly, what was it with guys and not fighting with girls? And flirting while you were at it, too?

"No. I'm afraid I can't. First you have to pass through me if you want to enter that room," she answered, more determined than ever.

Axel sighed, crossing his arms against his chest as he looked her up and down. "Why do girls always make it more difficult?"

"Because that's always more fun," she answered, smirking.

He seemed to think about her words for a moment, before he spoke up, "Very well, then. Have it your way. But don't say that I didn't warn you. Here we go."

At once, the redhead summoned two firered and silver-colored shakrams, spinning them expertly with his hands as his grin never left his pale face. He then rushed forwards without as much as a warning and started to attack her with the two weapons. Now she understood why his hair was that red. It matched his element, his weapons, his personality _and_ his fierce fighting style. But she knew how to handle this. She only dodged his attacks and it felt like they fought for hours. Unfortunately, that meant that she slowed down, too, and that had as a result that she couldn't dodge all of his attacks. Her arms were burned slightly and it started to hurt.

When Axel was tired, after what seemed to be ages, he finally gave up and stopped fighting alltogether. She was more than glad, because she was getting tired too and she couldn't hold it any longer. At one point, the thought that maybe he was just being a gentleman crossed her mind, but she ignored it.

_Fiew, at last! I thought that he would never stop again._

They were both panting at this point, using the wall behind them to lean onto, as their eyes never left the other. He looked at her and started to smirk, thoroughly amused for one reason or another.

"What's so funny?" she asked, lifting a brow.

"Nothing. It's just that you almost impressed me. I had never thought that a girl would be this strong. And now that my time's up, I guess I'll have to give up now."

"So you finally noticed that I was being serious?" she asked.

She started to smirk too.

_I think I just started to like this guy, without any reason. Does that make me an idiot?_

"Tell me, who are you? The least you could do, is tell me the name of the girl who almost beat me."

_I think that uncle and Ansem have done their work now. It's time for me to disappear... before he changes his mind and starts attacking me_.

"My name is of no importance. Well, it was nice meeting, and then fighting you, but I really have to go now. Cheers!" she said, as she quickly started to run away.

"Hey! Where are you going? I wasn't finished yet!" she heard him yelling, but she didn't go back and he didn't follow her.

* * *

**_~Reality~_**

And now, the guy she had fought with was her physics teacher. Strange how some things could get that way. She was more than glad that he didn't recognize her. Although, that was very odd, too. Maybe he did recognize her, but he wanted to forget everything that happened between them in the past. She couldn't blame him for that decision. But it wasn't that important now. She had to focus on where they were going to next.

Suddenly, however, she got a sickening headache. She almost let go of Axel and the items in her other arm, but fortunately, she still managed to hold onto Axel's leg. Then, something really weird happened. She wasn't in her own body anymore. She was back in the Forbidden Room again. The room was empty and she saw pieces of crystal near the chair where Axel sat a few minutes ago. She knew that those were the crystal figurines.

"That stupid idiot broke my figurines!" she whispered, furiously.

She quickly ran to the window, even though she didn't want to, but she just couldn't stop herself. There she saw how a guy with fire red hair was flying in the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind. A girl with black hair and a school uniform was holding one of his legs.

"Damn it!" she said with the voice of Xehanort.

She almost got a heart attack right then and there at hearing her own voice.

_What the- Why do I sound like him?_

"How could he escape so easily? And what has that fool done with my precious experiment? Now I'll have to start all over! Stupid Axel! Stupid window! Stupid me! And stupid... now just wait a minute, who was that girl? I could have sworn that she looked exactly like Hailey from the back. But then... what the hell was she doing here? And how did she get here in the first place? The door was still locked when I came here. Hmm... it seems that I'll have to pay a nice visit at that sweet girl. Besides, she didn't come to my office to get a map of the school and she had promised me to come. If she has to do something with this, then they'll both pay for this!"

_What's happening? Am I in Xehanort's body? Eeeew! But why? Am I dreaming? This is not another flashback. At least, not that I know._

But that question was never answered, because then she was back in her own body again.

_Huh? Oh, I almost forgot that I was flying!_

She looked beneath her. She still saw houses everywhere and people who were working or just laying in their own garden, relaxing after a long and tiring school- or workday.

_Wow, this sure is beautiful... and unusual!_

"Ehm, where do I have to go now?" Axel asked her, as he turned his head toward her, so he could look at her.

"Do you know where Riku lives?"

"Yeah. Do you want me to land there?"

"Yes, please, if you can," she answered.

"Alright!"

She couldn't help but notice that he sounded really happy. She guessed that she would be happy too, if she had been locked up for so long and then finally came outside after a whole week. Xehanort really was mean and heartless. He would pay for this, too. She wondered why he did that to Axel. Whatever the reason was, it certainly had something to do with the darkness or one of his new creepy experiments.

They finally arrived at Riku's house. How the man knew where he lived, remained another mystery for her, but she didn't ask anything about it. Axel started to bend over so they could land. She let go of his leg when she was sure that she could land safely on the soft green grass, without breaking any bones.

* * *

Riku paced up and down in his living room, not paying attention at his surroundings and his best friends, who were sitting on the sofa next to each other. He did it over and over again. Why? Because he was worried... about Hailey. Plus, he actually didn't know what else to do to kill time. There was not that much he could do right now, anyway. He was waiting for Hailey. He didn't dare to stop walking now. It almost felt like something terrible would happen to her if he stopped pacing up and down.

Why in Kingdom Hearts's name did it take her so long to come back? What if she had failed? What if Xehanort had seen her? What if something teribble had happened to her? These thought kept plaguing him.

Every time that he came past the window, he peered through it quickly, like he expected that a smiling Hailey would open the door to enter this room.

Then she would exclaim something like, "There you see? I told you I could do it on my own! I told you that there really was a secret in his room? I've even brought it with me." She would look at him and then smile at him. She would say this, "Thank you so much for believing me, Riku. I'm glad that you found me."

He would feel the butterflies in his stomach when she would say that. She would give him a kiss on his cheek and hug him, still with that adorable smile on her beautiful face. Then he could finally hold her very tight, just like that short moment in that dark room at school... So he waited for her to come.

Every time he looked through the window and he couldn't see her, he would make a frustrated noise, which sounded much like, "Ugh!" and then he would sigh and continue pacing up and down the big room.

Maybe she was in danger. Maybe she was hurt. Maybe...

This time, Kairi sighed too, interrupting his train of thoughts abruptly. "Riku, please knock it off. You're really giving me the nerves!" she said, when he passed her for the eighth time this minute.

Her frustrated voice turned him back to reality. Honestly, how could she ask from him to do that? He guessed that she didn't even care about her. He really didn't know why in the world he used to think that Kairi was amazing, because she certainly wasn't, that much was obvious now. Okay, maybe it was because she looked better than Selphie or any other rabid fan girl at school.

"But what if something teribble happens to Hailey? What if she's hurt? And I'm pretty sure that she's in trouble right now. That'll be all my fault. I don't understand how you two can just sit here and wait, while she's risking her life for that stupid Forbidden Room!" he snapped back.

Who was giving who the nerves right now, he wondered. So, as headtrong as he was, he didn't stop pacing up and down in the room. He even started walking at a faster pace.

"Riku, Kairi has already told you why we're waiting here for her. It was far too dangerous for us to go with her. I mean, we could get expelled if Xehanort found out what we were actually doing there. And calm down a little bit. This is not the end of the world. At least, not yet," Sora said, while he defended his girlfriend.

Riku was shocked.

_What did he just say? I can't believe what I've just heard!_

Riku looked unbelievingly at Sora, like he had just punched Riku right in the face. "Hey! Whose side are you on? Defending that girl and not your best friend? How could you?"

If Riku could see himself in the mirror right that moment, he would have known how dangerous and scary he looked; he looked like he was preparing to attack Sora, his best friend. Well, he used to be Riku's best friend, but he had changed when Kairi came into his life. It was such a pity. Here was the proof that girls made every guy change. Also the naive ones, like Sora here.

"Riku, calm down, please. You're sort of... scaring me. I've never seen you like this before. It almost seems like you care more about her than about us and you don't even know her..." Kairi noted.

He said nothing, but just stared at her. So what if he did?

_Jealous?_

Besides, he did know her well enough, for more than a year. Long enough to know what kind of a girl she was.

"Well? Are you gonna say something, or what? Is it true? Do you have feelings for Hailey?" Kairi tried again.

The next time he saw Hailey, he would ask her to bring some ducttape with her for Kairi. Maybe that would help her to shut up for at least ten seconds or so...

He didn't know what to say. Yes, Kairi was right of course, like she almost always was; he had feelings for Hailey. But Hailey was not your average girl. She had inspired him since he had met her, so he thought he did know her more than she thought. But why should he tell all this to Kairi? It was not like that would bring Hailey back safely, or that Kairi would understand everything now. Maybe Kairi would get jealous if he told her the truth, just like a couple of hours ago... He really hoped that she was okay. He would never forgive himself if something happened to her, because that would be all his fault.

He noticed how Kairi followed all his movements silently with her eyes. He tried to ignore it, but it didn't work. She kept looking at him with those big, questioning, blue eyes. It really annoyed him.

He sighed. "Perhaps," he finally managed to say. "And could you please stop looking at me like that?"

"Perhaps? Is that something like a... yes?" she immediately asked.

Apparently, she didn't want to drop the subject just yet. Now he was pretty sure that she was wishing right now that she could read his mind. Perhaps he should tease her some more. He wondered what would happen then. Would she explode out of frustration? He could see the curiosity in her eyes.

"Well, what shall I say?" he said.

"How about the truth?" Kairi suggested.

She sounded patient, but he knew very well that she wasn't.

From the corner of his eyes he could see that Sora was looking at him as well now, probabely wondering the same thing. "Eh... right. Well, what I mean is..."

"Yes?" she urged on.

Then the bell rang. He quickly looked at the front door. Kairi yelped and jumped out of her seat, like she was sitting on nails and finally noticed it. Riku smirked, because it honestly looked quite stupid yet funny.

That was what she got when he ignored his pleas. It looked like he was saved by the bell!

"I'll open the door," Sora quickly said, as he rushed forward, toward the front door before anyone else could protest.

* * *

"Wow, that was definitely a nice flight! It was something completely different to experience," Hailey said, happily, as she started fixing her hair to make it look more presentable.

She really had enjoyed the flight, despite all of the strange things that had happened to her. She was almost getting used to it. She still had a hammering headache, but that didn't matter now. She did hope that Riku had aspirins... and that she would soon find out the reason why all this was happening to her, because she was afraid that she was slowly starting to get insane! What would other people think of her then? What would Riku think of her if he found out...

She walked to the front door of Riku's house and rang the doorbell. She heard a yelp and someone ran very hard through the house, almost as though he or she was chased by the devil.

_Whoa, talk about panicking! Who yelped like an idiot? Kairi? It must have been Kairi, because the person who yelled had a high pitching voice, just like her._

At that moment, the front door opened. It was Sora.

It could be just her, but he really looked relieved when he saw it was Hailey. "Finally! There you are! What took you so long? Riku was practically preparing to kill me and Kairi, because it took you so long to come. You just saved our lives. Man, he really was worried about you. It's the first time that I've seen him like this in... years!" he said.

"Really?" she asked, smiling.

Had Riku really been that worried about her? It seemed that this day was getting better and better for her.

"Yeah! And- whoa!" Sora gasped. His eyes became as big and round as saucers. It was funny to see that, almost cute, even. "Mr. Axel? What are _you_ doing here? I thought you were still on vacation. At least, that's what the headmaster said. Ehm... well, why don't you explain all this inside?" Sora said.

"Sure!" Hailey and Axel said, at exactly the same time.

They looked at each other and then started laughing. Sora moved over and let her and his physics teacher pass through him. Hailey went immediately to the living room, since she knew her way around here. She saw how Riku looked at her. She blushed and wanted to say something, when someone suddenly attacked her. It made her almost fell on the floor, but strangely enough, she still managed to keep her balance. She almost dropped the book and the figurines that she was still holding in her hands.

"Whoa!" was the only thing she could say, as all the air was knocked out of her lungs by the mysterious attacker.

Okay, perhaps she wasn't that mysterious. She knew it was Kairi, since she only saw red hair everywhere. Also, she wasn't attacking Hailey, she just hugged her.

* * *

**A/N: Wow, Riku is getting... dangerous. What will happen next****? Keep reading and find out. ****Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it! ^-^**


	15. XIV The Visit

**A/N:** **Yeah, I really am sorry that I haven't updated for a while. My excuse: school. I actually need a beta reader for this story (spelling, grammar and such). I think I will be able to finish this story in five more chapters. ****I'm also writing a Riku/Selphie fanfic. Don't think that's a stupid pairing, 'cause these two are so different from each other that it will actually be pretty funny... or so I hope. :P It will contain body-switch and some humor. Any ideas?**

**Thanks: Assassine Rose, FoxyestWolf, Teye, xMihaelxJeevasx, Forgotten in Darkness, The-Kiwi-Lover**

* * *

"Uh... I missed you, too?" Hailey said, perplexed, as she returned the hug.

She heard that someone behind her chuckled when she said that. It sounded like Riku.

"I'm glad you're safe, Hailey. And I'm glad I'm still alive to see that, because I really thought that Riku would change into an assassin," she whispered into her ear, so only she could hear and definitely not the person she was just talking about.

Had it really been that serious? She had thought that Sora was only joking.

"Hey! What about me? No hug for me?" Axel said, unbelieving.

Hailey laughed at that. He sounded too disappointed.

"Mr Axel? What are you doing here? I thought you-"

"Your boyfriend just asked me the same, so I think it's better to tell you all the most incredible story of this century," Axel responded.

Hailey felt how someone tapped her on her shoulder. She turned to look who it was. To her great surprise, she saw that it was Riku. He was the only one who still hadn't said one word so far.

She smiled and looked questioningly at him. "What is it?"

"Follow me," he whispered and he briskly walked away.

She followed him, as curious as she was. She wondered where they were going to. He went to the hallway and closed the door behind her, probably so nobody would hear the conversation that they were going to have soon.

"Riku, what's the matter?" she asked, getting worried now by his odd behavior.

Why was he acting like this?

He looked solemnly at her, before asking softly, "Are you okay?"

She honestly hadn't expected to hear that. He sounded too solemn.

"I'm... fine, I guess," she replied after a short while, while she couldn't look away from his beautiful and mesmerizing eyes.

"Has anyone seen you? Xehanort, for example? Or any other teacher?" he asked, sounding more urgent now.

She slowly shook her head. "No, I don't think so." She thought about that strange flashback or dream, or whatever it was. Should she tell him about it? She didn't even know if it had really happened or not. Maybe she shouldn't start about it now. "I mean, not that I know."

"Are you hurt?"

She raised her eyebrows in her surprise. He really was worried!

"No Riku, I'm fine. Really. Trust me. You don't have to worry. I mean, I'm safe here, and in my own house, too. Look, I've got to go now. I have to tell something to my aunt. It's very important. Plus, we both still have a lot of homework to do, remember?" Hailey said, although she didn't really want to go now.

The prospect of having to make that much homework for economics wasn't exactly that appealing. Still, it was something that had to be done, whether she wanted or not. Besides, she didn't need the wrath of all the teachers. She had her hands more than full while handling the jerk that called himself Xehanort.

Riku still had that same worried look on his face, but he nodded finally. "Okay. I understand. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then."

She smiled. Of course he would.

"Uh-huh. See ya tomorrow," she replied.

"Bye."

Hailey opened the front door and walked outside. The sun was still shining and there was no wind, which made her feel even happier. She loved such tropical weather... if it wasn't too warm, of course. She felt how he was looking at her, until she finally reached her house safely and closed the door behind her.

Why did he give her the idea that he thought that she was in some real trouble? As far as she knew, that wasn't true. After all, nobody had seen her at school, so why all those worries and these long faces? Besides, she could take care of herself very well. She had managed to do that for more than a year, so she really knew what she was doing. Not that she could blame him, since he didn't know about that, of course, but still. According to her, he underestimated her a lot. He might even think that she was helpless, or something. Well, maybe he was just worried... and that was so sweet, no matter what way you were looking at it.

She smiled again. She opened the door of her house and stepped inside. Aunt Veronica had given her the reserve key yesterday evening, because she would come home much later. It was so quiet and peaceful inside. It had a calming effect on her nerves, which was a very welcome change. That was just what she needed now to relax again.

_Wait till aunt Veronica sees those two beautiful statues. She'll love it! Hmm… Let's see; what shall I do first, take a look at this book or doing my homework and other boring stuff?_

She really wanted to start reading the book her aunt had written, but she was afraid that the teachers would try to kill her the next day if she hadn't done all her homework. Plus, this would be a perfect alibi, in case the teachers would ask her where she was yesterday, what she was doing and other awkward questions that would surely follow.

One could never know for sure what those strange teachers were up to. Maybe if she could hurry up with her homework and finish it, she would have enough time to start reading the first two chapters of the book.

With "hurry up" she actually meant something like, "give it a try." So she put the book and the figurines on the wooden table and got her books out of her backpack. She was about to start with her homework, when the doorbell rang.

_Wow, aunt Veronica! That's quick. Nice timing, though, 'cause I have a lot of questions for her to be answered._

She looked quickly through the window when she walked, no, practically _ran_ to the door to open it. She saw someone with long, silver hair, but she couldn't see his or her face. She didn't need to, though. Who else could it be? A radiant smile appeared on her face and she almost felt like jumping from glee. Riku? Well that was a nice surprise, she thought, happily. The butterflies in her stomach seemed to come alive again at the thought of the silver-haired male teen.

She opened the door. "Hey! I didn't expec-"

She gasped and widened her dark eyes when she saw who had really rang the doorbell.

_Oh… my… gosh! I'm dead!_

An evil grin appeared on his face, which made him look even more creepy. Suddenly it was more difficult for Hailey to breathe. That was definitely the last person she had expected to come and visit her today, but now he really was standing here in front of her. Maybe it was just a dream? A nightmare that seemed to never end? She was pretty sure that she wasn't dreaming, though. Unfortunately not. But what was he doing here? Did he know that she was all alone in this house? Did he plan all this? Why did she have a strange and sickening feeling about all this? She couldn't help but shiver in fear.

"Hello, Hailey. I'm glad you're so happy to see me. I didn't expect that to happen, though. I have to admit that I really was afraid that I wouldn't be welcome. May I come in? We have some things to discuss," Xehanort asked with a low voice.

Hailey wanted to slam the door in his face as a respond and run to her room and hide there, where it was safe enough, but she knew that that wasn't possible, since he was the headmaster of her new school. Her heart was beating so fast, that she was afraid that Xehanort could hear it, too.

_Now I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of my life. Where is aunt Veronica when you need her? I hope she'll come ho-_

Another thought popped into her head. This one was worse. Much worse. He didn't do anything to her, did he? Something like... killing her? What to do now? Maybe the neighbours would hear her if she screamed? No, this house had soundproof walls, aunt Veronica told her that yesterday, so that plan wouldn't work...unfortunately.

Eventually, Hailey nodded and let Xehanort inside. She had no choice. He followed her to the living room. The thought that he was behind her where Hailey couldn't see what he was doing, totally freaked her out. She tried not to show that, though. Suddenly, she thought about something else; what if he would try to kill her here... or something even worse? What if that was the only reason that he had come here? And there was nobody to hear her, or to help her, so he would have all the time of the world.

_I'm getting insane! _She admonished herself, _Now that's sheer nonsense. Why would he do that?_

Another voice in her head immediately answered, _What do you mean with "Why would he do that?" Well, he isn't that innocent, you know? Have you forgotten already that he's the one who killed Mia and your parents? He even tried to kill you, uncle Ansem and aunt Veronica! Of course he could do such a thing! He's a baaaad guy._

Hailey screwed up her courage, or at least she tried to, and looked at him. She wanted to ask him what the hell he was doing here, but she didn't really dare. His presence alone was pretty intimidating.

Maybe he noticed that, because he said, "So, Hailey… I guess you're wondering what I'm doing here, right?"

Hailey nodded slowly. It felt like his eyes were trying to hypnotize her. What was he up to now?

"Okay, I'll tell you."

He came closer and closer to her.

_Uh... why don't you stay where you are? I'm sure that I can hear it from that distance, too._

She started walking backwards slowly until she felt the wall that was blocking her way. Stupid wall. Whose idea had it been to put it there?

_Okay, stay calm. Don't panic, don't-_

He was too close to her, far too close for comfort even. Xehanort started to smirk, now that she was trapped in the corner, like a rat. He touched her arm with his fingertips, which were strangely enough_ freezing cold_. It made her shiver. Normally, she would have said to knock it off, but now she couldn't. She was paralysed with fear, literally. Hailey saw how his face came closer and closer to hers. She wanted to scream, but her vocal cords didn't seem to want to work at the moment.

When Xehanort was just inches away from her, she had her voice back and used it immediately. "Uh, do you want to drink something? Coffee, tea, water, anything?"

_What about ratpoison so I'll never have to see you again?_

Xehanort looked astonished, yet disappointed. He sighed deeply as he eyed her, his orange eyes glowing faintly.

_Yeah, I know. Nice timing, huh? I always do something like that, so you should better get used to it._

"Uh... yes. I'll drink the same as you do," he answered.

"Okay."

She made a quick dash to the kitchen, trying to think of something to get rid of him. What she needed, was a plan. A good one, otherwise she wouldn't be able to survive this day. That was when she remembered something. Aunt Veronica had told her that she used sleeping pills a few months ago, to calm her nerves. Maybe she still had some. And if she was very lucky, it was right here, in the kitchen. She sure hoped so. It was the only way to stop him right in time. Fortunately, she was right. Aunt Veronica had put it in one of the glasses Hailey used now. Lucky her!

She filled both glasses with water and put one of those sleeping pills in one glass of water, after she made powder of them with a teaspoon. She really hoped that he wouldn't notice anything and that she would give him the right glass. She had to hurry up, though, otherwise he would start to suspect something and then become suspicious.

She quickly returned to the living room, where Xehanort was still waiting for her. In the mean time, the silver-haired man had sat down on the confortable red sofa, making himself feel at home. He faced her when she entered the room.

She tried not to glare daggers at him. "Here you are. Sorry that it took me so long. I didn't know where my aunt had put all the glasses," she said, while she handed Xehanort a glass.

Xehanort took the glass of water from her. "Thanks, Hailey, and it's okay."

He was very welcome. She hoped that this would work. It was such a pity that she couldn't find some poison, otherwise she would have used that instead of sleeping pills. She didn't dare to think about what would happen if her plan failed. She also tried not to look at Xehanort and his glass too often, so he wouldn't get suspicious, but she couldn't quite help it. Unfortunately, Xehanort noticed her glance, just when he wanted to drink the water.

He quirked his eyebrows, looking at her with his piercing orange eyes. "Is there something wrong?"

"Uh, no, not at all," Hailey answered, while she smiled a little.

She felt how her face started to get redder and redder because of her lie.

_No, not now_!

"Hmm... I see. Then why don't we change from glass?"

_I knew it._

"What? Uh, I mean, why should we do that? Both are the same."

"Then it doesn't matter if we change from glasses, right?" A devilish smirk appeared on his face when he suggested that. Hailey started to looked pale like a blanket. "My dear Hailey, did you really think I'm such a pathetic fool? Did you really think that you could get away with that so easily? I'm afraid you've underestimated me, and how. So give me your glass now! Before I really get mad. You don't want that to happen, now do you?"

"But... I think_ you're_ the one who overestimated _me_. You're overreacting. Really."

"In that case, change from glass with me and take a sip of your water to prove me wrong."

Hailey saw that she had no choice. She gave him the most dirty look she could muster, hoping that he would burn in hell, before she handed him her own glass and took his instead.

He only gave her an evil grin as a response. "Well, what are you waiting for?" Xehanort asked.

_I hope he knows that I really hate him._

"Oh, I just like to mount the tension," she replied, sarcastically, before she drank from the water in the glass.

* * *

Riku looked out of the window. Nothing really happened outside, but it was better than having his attention to what was happening inside. He was still worried about Hailey. She was acting very strange. Like she was hiding something from him. And here, he had thought that she trusted him enough to tell him anything. Or maybe there really was nothing wrong and she was right about the homework. He hated how she confused him more than anyone.

Suddenly, he saw Xehanort, who walked straight to Hailey's house and rang the doorbell.

_Oh, there's my favorite teacher slash headmaster._

Then he finally realized what he was actually seeing. "Wait, what is _he_ doing here?" Riku asked, quite astonished.

"Who?" Sora wanted to know.

Riku didn't answer. He saw how the headmaster was smirking when the front door opened and then he walked inside, closing the door after him.

"Riku?" Sora tried again.

Riku turned around, facing the others.

Now he was even more worried, but nobody knew that, because he knew how to hide it and he almost always did. "Guys, does the headmaster normally visit his students?" he asked.

Sora, Kairi and Axel looked at each other, exchanging an utterly perplexed look.

"Xehanort who visits his students? The students he _hates_? Are we talking about the same Xehanort, or are you seeing things or something? Oh, come on, I've heard better ones in my life. Riku, what are you talking about and where is your sense of humor? He would _never_ do such a thing. Even I know that," Sora said, while he shook his head in disbelief.

"Well, never… except for now, I guess. Look, I just saw him and I know very well that I'm not hallucinating... at least, not today. He's visiting Hailey. Isn't that... odd, to say the least?"

"What? Are you kidding me? He really is? Then allow me one, simple question. Why are we still standing here, doing nothing but looking dumbfounded at each other and asking each other stupid questions, like we're all idiots, who have nothing else to do, instead of actually _doing_ something useful? I say we should check it out right now. Hailey might be in danger... again. I don't trust that guy anymore, after he locked me up, like I'm some kind of a damsel in distress with extremely long hair, who needs to be locked up in a tower. Well, even damsel in distresses don't deserve being locked up like that. So I think you shouldn't trust him, either, otherwise he'll lock you up, thinking that you're a damsel in distress, too," Axel said.

A rather uncharacteristic snort escaped Kairi at his logic, and she tried to conseal it with a cough. Not that it was working, though.

"Maybe you've got a point, Sir... somewhere," Sora noted.

Axel sighed. "Of course I have! I always do, but nobody ever listens to me. Now that's the whole problem."

"Poor you," Riku said, smirking.

"So what are we waiting for? Let's go. We've got to save her. Now," Kairi said and she got up quickly.

That was exactly what Riku wanted to hear all this time. The silver-haired teen followed his friends.

"Oh, and Sora?"

"Yes, Sir?" Sora said, while looking at Axel.

"Don't call me 'Sir' anymore, when we're not at school. Just call me Axel, like you used to do once. I feel so old when people do that. I'm not even that old. At least not as old as old as good old Even," Axel said.

Sora laughed. "Okay, S... eh, I mean Axel."

"Much better," the redheaded male said, nodding approvingly.

* * *

**A/N: Wow, you're still reading this story? I'm... surprised to say the least. What's Xehanort doing there? What is he up to? ****Anyways, thanks for reading! ^-^**


	16. XV More and More Trouble

**A/N: Yup, another chapter is up, at last! I want to finish this story as soon as possible, 'cause I've been working on this one for more than a year now.**

**Thanks: Soul of Doom, Native-kitten, ****Angie-ange, chocoranger, ExtremeRachey, and TheKeeperOfKingdomHearts1**

**I'm really sorry if I forgot someone. It's been such a long time ago that I've been working on this story. But don't worry; I'm determined to end this story soon... well, that's the plan. I don't know what the future will bring me.**

* * *

"So, I hope you're happy now?" Hailey asked, quite annoyed, glaring at the man who had invaded her home.

Xehanort grinned evilly. Oh, how she hated it when he did that.

"Yes I am. I'm so sorry. I guess you were right after all. I really am overestimating you."

"Well, duh. I'm glad you finally noticed. It was about getting time, you know."

"I just thought that it could be possible that you tried to pois-"

Xehanort stopped talking immediately when his eyes fell on some familiar object. She sighed, wearily, trying not to roll her eyes. Now what? Had he lost his tongue? How she had secretly hoped for that to happen.

She looked up at him, trying to see what was wrong with him now (gosh, the guy was so dramatic sometimes...). He was looking at something on the wooden table between them. Something about the way he was looking at it, made Hailey shiver once again. It was scaring her. She followed his glance and gasped. He was looking at the book and the figurines she had put there on the table, when she had been in such a hurry. Hailey saw how he was wondering what this was doing here. She also saw that he had made his conclusions already.

Now she really was caught red-handed! Oh, why in hells name was she such a stupid person to put it there, right in front of him, so he can see it clearly? Sometimes it really looked like she did want to get into trouble. She seemed to be succeeding pretty much, too.

"Hailey, where did you get those?" he asked slowly, looking up at her.

He pointed at the crystal figurines and the book. His voice stayed calm, but his eyes were cold as ice, in a very dangerous way. Now what to say?

"Oh, I stole it from the Forbidden Room" probably wouldn't be a good answer if she didn't want to die now.

"Uh... my aunt gave it yesterday to me... as a present... because she loves me so much and... because she's missed me so much and... because she's glad I'm living here with her now, like a happy family," Hailey answered, gulping.

"Oh really? And where is your aunt now?"

"She's still at work. Why do you ask?"

To her great alarm, she heard that her voice had become an octave higher from the nerves.

And like he didn't know where she was already. He couldn't fool her! That was why he had chosen to come and visit her now, now there was nobody at home. She felt how her heart started to beat faster and faster.

"I want to speak to her, that's all. I guess I'll have to wait until she comes home, then."

That was just great. Just what she needed.

"Okay. Suit yourself."

_Hey, wait a second! He asked me where aunt Veronica was. So that must mean he doesn't know at all where my aunt was. So she's probably safe and well!_ she thought, incredibly relieved.

At least there was one person who wasn't going to die here. He drank up his water quietly. Now it was Hailey's turn to grin.

_I knew it. Maybe I'm more lucky than I realize now._

Xehanort frowned slightly when he saw that happy look on her face.

It just didn't make sense to him. "Why are you laughing and looking so strangely at me? It almost scares me."

"Because I knew that you were and still are a hopeless idiot. That's all."

Xehanort didn't seem to understand her, but she didn't care at all. He would find out soon enough what she meant. She just could not believe that her plan had really worked. It was too good to be true.

"Huh? I don't get-"

He stopped talking, again and blinked his eyes a couple of times, like he couldn't see everything that bright anymore.

"Goodnight!" Hailey said smirking, when he closed his eyes and let the glass fall on the ground.

The glass broke when it hit the wooden floor.

"Hey! That was a new glass _and_ a new carpet! Now I have to clean up all the mess you made. It's not fair!" Hailey said, whining, before she realized that it always could have been worse. Much worse... "You know what, I should clean it all up with your hair. At least it would be a little bit useful then. Oh, never mind already."

She got up and was about to go to the kitchen to get the things she needed, when she heard the sound of breaking glass in the kitchen. She froze on the spot, her chocolate-colored eyes widening instantly.

Oh no, apparently, Xehanort had sent one of his other friends to spy on her! He had entered the house already. Now what to do? She didn't even dare to ask who it was this time. If she started running now, would she make it to the front door and escape right in time, without getting hurt?

"Hailey, it's me, your aunt! I forgot my keys, so I didn't use the front door. Plus, I accidentally broke a glass, again," aunt Veronica said.

_Oh, fieuw! I'm afraid that I'm getting paranoid, just because of my headmaster._

She heard how the woman moved around the broken pieces of glass, probably with her boots.

"I'm in the living room!" Hailey yelled back.

Almost two seconds later, aunt Veronica appeared in front of her. "Hey, Hailey. How was your firs-" She gasped and kept staring at the sleeping Xehanort. "What the hell is _he_ doing here? Is he unconcious? Are you okay? Did he hurt you? Because if he did, then I'll-"

"No, no, he didn't! I'm fine," Hailey said quickly, before her aunt would do something stupid.

Hailey then explained her what she had done to him. Aunt Veronica's facial expression changed from surprised into pure joy. Her story made her aunt laugh. Then the doorbell rang again.

_Oh no! That might be another teacher!_

"Wow, for someone who has just moved here, you're very popular," aunt Veronica noted, "I guess you made many friends that quickly? Good for you! I'll open the door." She headed to the door and opened it. "Oh! Come in, please. It's quite a long time ago that you've visited me," her aunt said.

Hailey was wondering who that might be. One of her aunt's old friends? Her answer was questioned soon, because right that moment, Sora, Kairi, Axel and Riku came in. Aunt Veronica followed them. She looked at Hailey, like she had a lot of things to explain to her. Hailey gave her a 'What?'-look. They all looked around, like they were searching for something. When their eyes fell on the sleeping Xehanort, they all widened their eyes at the same time, as if on cue.

"There you see? I told you guys!" Riku said, triumphantly, and with a cross of his muscular arms.

"Wow, what did you give him?" Sora asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Is he... dead?" Kairi asked.

Hailey looked at her dumbfoundedly. How could anyone possibly ask such a stupid question?

She wasn't a murderer! "No, unfortunately not. I wanted to poison him first, but all I could find, were sleeping pills," Hailey answered, truthfully.

"Wicked!" Axel said.

"Ehm, if you say so," Hailey said.

"What exactly happened?" Riku asked.

So Hailey had to explain everything again. Thankfully, nobody interrupted her, so she could tell it all swiftly.

"So basically, what you did was putting some sleeping pills in your own glass of water, instead of his? Then, you gave Xehanort the other glass. He thought that you had put something in his glass, so you changed from glass and drank it to prove him that he could trust you, which is the reason that he's sleeping now? Wow! That's just... brilliant! A little scary and farfetched too... but also brilliant! I would have never come up with such a great plan," Axel admitted.

"Thanks. I guess I have my moments... sometimes."

Hailey looked at Riku. She actually wanted him to give her compliments. However, Riku was looking strangely at her. Like he was worried again.

"Uh… Riku, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something wrong?" Hailey asked.

"What exactly did you say again about being safe in your own house?"

_Huh?_

Hailey gave him a questioning look, while she thought about it.

Then she remembered. She had said, "Riku, I'm fine. Really. Trust me. Please don't worry about me anymore. I'm safe here and in my own house."

How stupid. Even that was not true. Xehanort had totally proved that today.

"Uh... I forgot."

Riku looked at her and said, "Yeah, _right," _not believing a moment of what she said.

She couldn't blame him for that, though. "It doesn't matter, anyway. More important is: What to do now with him?"

She pointed, almost disgustedly, at Xehanort, who still was sleeping soundly, not aware of what Hailey had done to him. She wondered what he would do when he woke up. Probably blow up in fury, or something.

"Hmm... that's a good one," Sora said, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

Everyone thought about it for a while, trying to come up with a solution.

"Can't we just dump him somewhere he can never be found by anyone? That would serve him right, wouldn't it?" Riku suddenly said, breaking the silence effectively.

Everyone looked in a weird way at Riku, their eyebrows up. "Uh... just kidding?" he quickly said, "I know you all want to do that, though."

"No, we have to come up with another plan, although he is right about that," Axel said.

"O yeah? Do you have a better idea, then?" Riku said, facing his physics teacher.

"Well uh-"

"You know, he does look so innocent and cute when he's sleeping," Hailey suddenly said.

Riku looked unbelieving at her. "What did you just say?"

"Uh... just kidding?" she mimicked him, teased him.

Riku rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Very funny."

"Hey, I know something! Again! I guess it's my day today!" Kairi said, utterly exited, while cheering for herself.

"So are you going to share it with us, or what?" Riku said.

"We've got to bring him back to school again!" Kairi said in a way that it made it all look simple.

Everyone looked dumbfoundedly at her.

"But he saw those figurines already! What if he comes back to ask me where I got those?" Hailey asked.

Thinking of that made her shiver again.

"Then you just hide this stuff and tell him that he has been dreaming all this. It's very easy," Kairi answered.

"Hmm... I don't know. It still is quite tricky, don't you think? I mean, why would he believe it was all a dream?"

Hailey didn't want to hurt her feelings, so she did not say it was a stupid idea.

At once Kairi used this silence as a benefit. "Oh, do you have any better ideas then? 'Cause if you do, please, share with us," Kairi said, almost getting pissed, as she made a wide gesture with her hands.

Hailey was aware of the sudden cold silence around her. Of course, she had to admit that Kairi had a point... somewhere.

She sighed. "Uh... no, I don't," she admitted. She also had to admit that Kairi looked quite scary when she was mad. It was like her bordeau red hair had electricity. "Okay, we'll do it. But if he ever finds out and kills me, it'll be all your fault," Hailey said, warningly.

"Don't worry, nothing will happen. Besides, I wouldn't be too worried if I were you. After all, Riku will be here by your side to protect you all the time," Kairi said, smiling teasingly.

"Oh, then I guess I shouldn't complain."

Riku sighed. "Never listen to girls, otherwise you'll be doomed for the rest of your life," he muttered, shaking his head slightly.

"I beg your pardon?" Hailey and Kairi said at the same time, both putting their hands on their hips, giving them almost a defying look, as if daring him to repeat what he had just said.

"Uh... nothing, nothing," he said quickly, after seeing the sharp expression on both of their faces.

Kairi still looked at him with narrowed eyes, though. "By the way, I think it's better if Riku and Axel pick Xehanort up," she said, smirking evilly.

Her eyes shone brighter at seeing Riku's shocked expression.

"What? Why on earth's that?" Riku asked, utterly astounded.

He did not really look like he had planned to touch Xehanort, let alone to lift him up and carry him the whole way to their school. Hailey didn't don't blame the poor guy. It wasn't exactly something to look forward to.

"Because you two are the strongest out of all of us," Kairi replied.

"What? That doesn't make sense at all. I'm not going to touch that-that... I don't even know a name for it!" Riku said, venomously.

"You don't have a choice," Kairi said smirking.

"Hey! And what about me? Am I not strong enough for that?" Sora said offended all of a sudden.

"No, not really. I thought I proved that often enough by beating you in our swordfights? Such a good thing you realised it right on time. Why are you so mad, anyway? You're the lucky one who won't get dirty hands," Riku said, while he grinned, showing a row of blinking white teeth.

"Oh, don't listen to him, Sora. You're strong, too, of course you are, but I don't want you to get hurt and this is just a way to tease Riku," Kairi said in his ear and she winked at Hailey.

That seemed to help, because the happy-go-lucky, spiky-haired boy looked happy again. "Oh, I see," he said.

"Hey!" Riku said, who had heard what Kairi had said, but the redheaded girl only stuck her tongue out at him.

"Well, good luck, then!" aunt Veronica cried.

After that, Riku and Axel picked up the still sleeping Xehanort and carried them all the way to their school. Strangely enough, but to their greatest relief, they ran into nobody. The streets were deserted, as if it was predestined, as if Fate helped them a hand. Thank heavens it did.

"This is almost _too_ easy," Riku said.

"Riku, shut up. Always when you say something like that, things get more difficult for us and we get into big trouble," Sora said.

Riku huffed, annoyed again. "Don't be so stupid. It's not like I actually _want_ us to be seen. I'm not the bad guy this time!"

"Guys, just shut up and keep walking. My poor back can't take this anymore and his office is on the third floor. I really hate this guy," Axel huffed.

"Hold on, we're almost there," Kairi assured him.

"Yeah, it's pretty easy for you to say such things, since you don't have to carry a weight of 200 pounds!" Axel whined.

Kairi tried not to laugh at that. She couldn't believe that there had been a time where she had hated this guy. But then again, he had kidnapped her, so she had had all the reasons to hate him a year ago.

"It's not funny!" Axel said, jokingly.

* * *

What was even stranger, was the fact that the school wasn't closed yet. Didn't that mean that there were still teachers and staff in the building?

"Lucky me," Axel sighed. "Oh man! Is this nightmare ever going to end?" He started walking towards the stairs, but he stopped when Riku didn't do the same. "Hey, are you coming, or what? I'm not going to do this all alone while you're just standing here, looking around like some idiot."

"Wait a sec, Axel. There's no way I'm going to take all those stairs, just because to bring him back," Riku noted.

"Then what do you want to do? I thought you couldn't fly?" Axel asked, getting irritated by every second that passed.

He was honestly _this_ close to start a fight with the silver-haired teen.

"No, I've got a better idea. How about using the elevator?"

Riku put one hand in his pocket and the next thing they saw, was a golden key in his hand.

"What's that?" Hailey asked, instantly curious.

"The elevator's key."

Kairi gasped softly. "How did you get that? We're not allowed to have one," she demanded.

"I borrowed it from our big and heavy friend here."

"That's just brilliant!" Axel cried.

"But what if someone sees us?" Kairi said, panicking by the thought.

Riku sighed. "Kai, take a chillpill, 'cause nobody will."

So they used the elevator and brought Xehanort back to his office. There, they just dumped them in his black seat.

"When do you think he will wake up again?" Axel asked, curiously.

"I have no idea, but let's get out of here, before he does right now and sees us," Sora noted.

"That's a good idea," Hailey admitted.

They closed the door behind them and made their way out of the school. Once again, there was no soul to see.

* * *

It was evening. Hailey was in her bedroom, lying on her bed and reading the very first chapter of her aunt's famous book. She had locked the door, so nobody would disturb her. Not that it was actually needed, seeing that only her aunt lived here with her, but she was feeling too lazy to get up and unlock her bedroom door again. She couldn't believe she had managed to finish all of her homework, after everything that had happened today. Yet, she could not concentrate on the book very well, which wasn't that strange, seeing the circumstances she was in at the moment. She couldn't help but wonder all the time how Xehanort had felt, when he woke up. Fortunately, he had not shown up again. Not yet, that is... What if he would come at night, kidnapping her and...

She shivered. "Just stop it! This is making no sense. You're only scaring yourself, all for nothing, like you always do!" she said to herself. "Hmm, maybe I should stop talking to myself too."

She sighed, shaking her head and continued reading. This was the fifth time she had been reading the same sentence and thinking about all this wasn't really helping her...

After this, she could finally concentrate. It really was interesting for her to read the things she did not know that had happened last year. Suddenly, however, she felt some pressure around her waist, like a tight belt, tightening all the more. She looked down from her book and her heart almost stopped beating. A strong, muscular arm was put around her waist. The arm came from under her bed. It pulled her with him to the edge of her bed and she would've fallen off the bed if she hadn't braced herself. She didn't even have the time to wonder what the arm was doing under her bed and how it came there in the first place.

_Oh my god; it's HIM! He's here, under my bed!_


	17. XVI Strangers at night

**A/N: ****Special t****hanks: Angie-ange, chocoranger, ExtremeRachey, and TheKeeperOfKingdomHearts1**

**I'm really sorry if I forgot someone. It's been such a long time ago that I've been working on this story. But don't worry; I'm determined to end this story soon... well, that's the plan. I don't know what the future will bring me. It's funny though, that this was my first story ever and now I have more than 94 stories on this site.**

* * *

After the thought that Xehanort was the person who was under the bed, she started to scream. She had never screamed this loud before in her whole life. She heard the sound of breaking glass, coming from downstairs, the living-room. She had probably startled her aunt.

"Hailey, relax! It's me, Riku," a voice said softly, shocked as well.

Instantly, the raven-haired girl stopped screaming and turned her head. "Huh?"

The dangerous hand stopped pulling her with him. Long, shiny, silver-colored hair appeared from under her bed, followed by another strong arm. The silver-haired boy pulled himself up and smirked at her.

"Did I scare you?" he questioned.

"Riku? What are you... how did you-"

She was speechless by now.

"Hailey?" aunt Veronica cried, while she tried to open the door from the outside. She failed, though, since Hailey had locked the door from inside. "Hailey, open up, what's wrong?"

Her aunt was panicking already, she could tell that much. Hailey looked at Riku, who put a finger on his lips, signing that she shouldn't tell her aunt about his unexpected visit. She sighed. Just great.

"Hailey?"

Hailey could tell from the several bangs on her door that her aunt was now using her shoulders to open the door.

Before she would damage either the bedroom door, or her own shoulder, she cried, "Auntie, I'm okay! I just… saw a spider." She looked at Riku, who was snickering quietly next to her. She shot him a sharp glare, but he didn't seem to be fazed by it at all. "A huge, hairy one, too. He was so scary! You know how much I hate them, don't you? I was scared to death when it came closer and closer, that's all. He's dead now." Riku's eyebrows shot up at the last three words, but she pushed him to the curtains, a sign for him to hide. Then she opened the door and Riku quickly hid behind her curtains, just in time. "Here you see?" Hailey said. Aunt Veronica looked at her. Her doubt was written all over her face, making Hailey gulp. "Uhm, is there something wrong?"

She tried to sound innocent, but realized that she failed miserably. She had never been that good at lying to her aunt and she knew that, too. No matter how hard she tried, her aunt always seemed to see through her lies. She guessed that that was a part of uncle Ansem's personality rubbing off on her after all these years of being together.

"No, nothing's wrong… I think. Are you sure you're okay?"

Hailey swiftly nodded, her face staying neutral.

She saw how her aunt's eyes wandered randomly through Hailey's bedroom, almost as if she was searching for something suspicious, so she could say something like, _"Hah! You see? I knew something was wrong here!"_

When her eyes fell on the curtains, though, she frowned a little in thought. Her niece started to hold her breath, fearing for the worst. What would happen if she found Riku? Would she get mad at her? Probably _furious_.

"Okay. Well, I'd better be going. My favorite soap is starting; _'Good Times, Bad Times_.'"

Then, her aunt turned and left the room, closing the door behind her. Hailey locked it and heard how she walked down the stairs, slowly, as if she was secretly checking if she could hear a suspicious noise inside that bedroom, or not.

"Fiew, that was a close one!" Riku said aloud, when he was sure that Veronica was downstairs again.

His voice startled her. "How in _hells_ name did you get here?"

"I used the window. You had left it open," he answered, sounding like he always did that... which he probably did.

"Why are you sneaking up in my room and not using the door? 'Cause, for your information, we also have a door, you know?" she asked him, utterly perplexed.

"Oh, you do?" Riku teased her.

She rolled her eyes and forced her forming smile down. "Why is it that you always act different when your friends are around you? Do you have different personalities or is it just because you like to tease me?"

Riku quirked an eyebrow, looking quite surprised by her question. "What are you talking about? I'm not acting any different when I'm with my friends."

Hailey sighed. No, except that he was too quiet, like in the canteen. So he didn't want to talk about it... okay, fine. Why was he such an impossible person? Why was he denying everything? Like that would solve every problem. She wasn't blind. She knew what she was seeing.

"Okay... what are you doing here, anyway?"

She doubted that he would answer that question seriously, but she still asked it. After all, one could never be too sure with people like Riku.

"I just... wanted to check if you were okay. So uh... are you okay?"

He was showing his worried side again. Hailey couldn't help but smile at that. It was adorable.

"I'm fine, Riku..."

She didn't really know what else to say, so she walked to the window and closed it, just in case someone else had planned to enter the house in the way he had just done. Now that she thought of it, she didn't exactly remember that she had opened the window today. But then... who did open it? Perhaps aunt Veronica?

"So... tell me, are you really scared of spiders?"

Hailey turned to look at him. He was smirking again. Why did she have the strange feeling that he would use this against her? It was probably just that look on his face that betrayed him.

"I'm afraid I am. Why, do you think that's funny?"

"Kinda. Those spiders don't do anything. In fact, they are more scared of you than you're of them."

Oh, there was that story again. How often had she had heard the very same thing from other people who thought they knew everything? Her Dad used to tell her exactly the same, too, every time that she had started about it.

Not that it had helped a bit; she still feared those hairy creatures. "Yeah, that's what _you_ think. I've got a reason to be scared of them. You know, I've read a horrorbook about them once. It was... _horrible_ to say the least. A new kind of small, white-colored spiders were somehow - I've actually forgotten how that even was possible, so don't ask me about that - living under the people's skin. Instead of blood, those white things flowed out of their wound when they got wounded. And then the things those spiders did to their victims... well, let's say that those Heartless are a lot more bearable creatures than those spiders were..." Hailey shivered lightly, thinking back of that story. She sometimes still had scary nightmares of that book. She had forgotten whose stupid idea it had been to read such rubbish, anyway, thinking that it was a masterpiece. Probably her own, since she was the only one who was just _that_ strange at times. It had had such a great impact on her that she hadn't touched any horrorbooks after that one. That meant that it had been _years_ ago since she had read any of them. She didn't care in the least. It was better this way, when she still could manage to catch some sleep at night. "What about you? Aren't you afraid of anything? I bet that even 'Wonder-boys' have their share problems, no matter how brave they are," she quickly tried to change the subject, in a way only she could do.

"..."

Riku didn't reply. A blank expression appeared on his face and he looked down at his hands, like they were actually the most interesting object in the room. That action caught Hailey's attention immediately. According to her, this showed that he was hiding something from her and by the looks of it, it could be kinda embarrassing... and probably pretty interesting, too.

She quirked her eyebrows. "So I guess you are," she said softly, nodding, "What is it?" Riku was still looking to the ground, a blush slowly creeping up his face, in this way confirming her suspisions. It was needless to say that he was making her more curious than he had ever done before. "Wow, is it _that_ embarrassing? You've made me curious." On his face was clearly written that he didn't know for sure if he could trust her or not. "Oh, come on already, you can trust me. You know that, right? I won't tell anyone, that's a pinky promise," Hailey whispered, encouraginly.

He sighed defeatedly, seeming to realize that he wouldn't and couldn't win from her. "Dentists," he said, far too soft for Hailey to hear, just when she wanted to give up questioning him.

"What? I didn't quite catch that," Hailey asked.

She was pretty sure that she hadn't heard it right.

"I'm scared of _dentists,_ okay?" he said, a bit louder now, but still not looking at her.

Hailey blinked a couple of times, obviously being dumbfounded at hearing this piece of information and then started to laugh. It was one of her notorious laughing fits; soundless and uncontrollable. That was seriously one of the last - if not the very last - answer she had expected to hear from someone like him. This proved yet another important thing: Riku would probably never cease to amaze her. Never.

"Hey, it's not funny!" he said, hotly, glaring at her with his piercing eyes.

Hailey waited with answering, until she had stopped laughing, gaining a rather peeved look from Riku. Almost a split of a second later, though, that look had disappeared and his face had a neutral expression on it again.

"Actually, it kinda is. I mean, _dentists_? Come on... what on earth could possibly be so scary about them? It's not that they're going to kill you, or something. They're human too, just like you and I."

"Well, for your information: spiders won't kill you, either," Riku snorted, allowing just a little bit of sarcasm to slip into his otherwise so calm voice.

Touché. Hailey chose to ignore his last comment, walking toward her bed to sit down. She tapped on the place next to her, motioning for Riku to take a seat as well. He followed her example and sat next down to her when he reached the bed.

"Yeah, well, at least dentists are not hairy... I mean, the most of them aren't... that much, if you know what I mean. They also don't have more than two eyes and two legs, now do they? Besides, some spiders actually _can_ kill you if they want, so you weren't even completely right about that one," Hailey said, laughing a little.

Riku quirked an eyebrow at her peculiar logic. "So? Trust me, dentists are scary in their own scary way. I'm afraid I can't really explain it, so you'll have to believe me in this one."

"Okay... if you say so."

A short silence set between them. Riku suddenly started moving around, seemingly searching something in his pockets. Something he couldn't find. This earned him a rather odd look from Hailey, because of his strange behavior. Soon enough, though, his hand became visible again and she looked down at it. She couldn't help but gasp when she saw the familiar golden necklace lying in his hand, with a golden pendant in the shape of a heart attached on it. The necklace shimmered brightly in the rather dimmed light of the bedroom.

"I found this some time ago. I was wondering if it was yours."

She looked at it, trying to conceal her bewilderment and happiness from him. "Wh- where did you find it?" she required, her voice trembling slightly.

"Near the beach, which was pretty strange, because the place itself was deserted. I figured someone had forgotten it, so I took it and kept it with me until I found the one who had lost this. So I can take that as a 'yes?'"

Hailey nodded, somewhat sheepishly, as if in some sort of trance. He handed her the shimmering object and she took it in her hands, holding it carefully and looking at its radiance and elegance. It was warm to the touch.

Putting it on her nightstand, she turned around and said from the bottom of her heart, "Thank you."

"Aren't you going to put it on?" he asked.

She could almost hear the frown from his voice.

She looked up at him and shook her head slowly. "No, I... can't do it by myself, you see? The clasp's always being difficult. But don't worry, I'll ask my aunt to help me with it some time later, okay?"

"Nonsense. That's what you've got me for, so if you'll let me..."

He extended his hand, signaling that he wanted to help her with putting it on. Hailey gave the necklace back to him, turning her back slightly to him and pulling her long black hair up with her hands to make it a bit easier for him.

When his hand made contact with her skin, she stiffened slightly and got goose bumps everywhere. "So I take it that you mean a lot to the one who gave you the necklace, huh?" Riku asked, out of the blue.

"Yeah. My late uncle gave it to me, aunt Veronica's deceased husband," she replied.

"Oh... I'm sorry," he muttered.

"It's okay. You didn't know that."

"So, I'm done now. But uh... I hope you don't mind, but I've promised Sora earlier to go visit him. He said it was pretty important, so I'm afraid I can't let him wait too long, since I'm his best friend. I'll see you tomorrow?" he questioned.

Hailey turned and nodded slowly, being slightly surprised at this sudden change. "Sure, go ahead."

Riku got up and walked over to the window, opening it again. Hailey followed him, thinking of how normal it seemed for people on the Islands to enter a room through a window, almost as if it was a habit of them.

She had done it, too, today, so she could join the club. "Ehm, are you sure you don't want to use the front door?" Hailey offered, making vague a gesture to her bedroom door.

"Nah, I'll be fine," he reassured her, smiling a little.

He was such a though boy.

"Okay. If you say so."

He waved, before he disappeared into the darkness of the night. Hailey sighed and watched how he let go of the drainpipe and jumped on the soft grass when he had almost reached the ground, before running off, but not without looking back for the last time and waving. She waved back with a slight smile on her face, not trying to show that she was a bit disappointed. The guy sure was in a rush today. Appearing, disappearing, reappearing, re-disappearing... wait, was that even a word? She frowned at her own disturbing thoughts. Probably not, for she had never heard of it. Man, she should make her own dictionary. She was pretty sure that she could get a lot of money with it, plus it would make her very famous, just like her aunt Veronica. Heck, maybe even more! She liked and disliked that prospect at the same time, because that would mean that she would have too little privacy for herself with all the papparazzi around her all the friggin' time.

She snickered once again when she thought of Riku's peculiar confession. She considered that he hadn't told her the truth at all, albeit it looked very convincing. It just didn't fit in the picture she had of Riku. Scared of dentists... yeah,_ sure_. It sounded too ridiculous for words. There had also been something else that she had noticed, something strange. Something - she didn't know what and why exactly - had felt different when he had put that necklace around her neck. It almost felt as if she had missed some important information, or such an obvious detail that it was right-in-her-face. As if she had had a déja vu she couldn't even remember anymore. That was impossible, though, because she hadn't met Riku before, right? She sighed, shaking her head lightly. How Sora and Kairi had managed to stay friends with him during these years, was beyond her knowledge. She was pretty sure she would find that out one day, though, but for now, she should continue with reading the book.

* * *

It was late at night. All the lights at aunt Veronica's house were off. It was quiet all around them and obviously, everyone was fast asleep, having either sweet dreams or disturbing nightmares. Some of them had no dreams to entertain them at all, though. If one had looked outside at the beautiful starry night sky, then that person certainly would have seen that it was full moon tonight. The puffy, but slightly thin clouds that passed the sky, sometimes hid that fact, but not for too long, because there weren't that many of them. The moonlight hardly lit up the Islands, showing a beautiful and rather peaceful picture of the strangely calm and shimmering dark sea, which bathed in the mysterious, silver and blue moonlight. Nobody was there to witness these beautiful sights, though.

Hailey restlessly tossed and turned in her bed, her body getting completely entangled in her thin blanket. Suddenly she opened her eyes wide and sat upright in one, quick move.

She bathed in sweat, trying to free herself from the blanket. "Another nightmare," she murmured, brushing some stubborn strands of her hair out of her eyes with her hand.

It was of no use, though; they came back in front of her eyes again. She tried very hard to remember the last images of her vivid dream, as she waited for the thumping of her heart to become slower and calmer. Wait just wait a minute, she didn't wake up because she had had a nightmare, for she had had a random dream, about her eating cereal when her bowl of cereal suddenly had disappeared into the nothingness. Then she had decided to eat some fruit. She just had wanted to start eating a strawberry, when she suddenly had woken up because of something she had felt and heard.

What exactly her dream could mean was indeed a mystery for her. Perhaps her subconsciousness was trying to tell her that she should have a more wholesome breakfast, or something. Or maybe not. It didn't matter now. What mattered more now, however, was what exactly had caused her to wake up. She thought about it for a short while. Suddenly she heard the sound of breaking glass, obviously coming from downstairs. It seemed that as of lately, her aunt's glasses broke faster than she could say "broomstick." Talk about irony. There was no time for irony now, though, for she had more important things on her mind.

Someone was wandering (aimlessly?) downstairs in the living room for some unknown reason and she had a strange alarming feeling that this time it just might not be her aunt who was sleepwalking.

* * *

**A/N: ****Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed! =) Since Riku still had that necklace, I just had to write that piece. Only, it didn't fit anywhere else in the story and it kept bothering me. At least that's taken care of now. Reviews are highly appreciated! ^.^**

**Funfact 1: There really is a soap called (translated, of course) "Good Times Bad Times."**

**Funfact 2: The book that Hailey described actually exists. I've read it once and I'm still not that keen on spiders...**

**Funfact 3: 25% of the Dutch population is scared of dentists...**


	18. XVII The Truth Behind Everything

**A/N: No, I haven't died yet and believe it or not, neither has this story. ****It's been such a long time ago that I've been working on this story, that I had the most trouble writing this chapter. But don't worry; I'm determined to end this story even if it kills me (let's just hope that doesn't happen). XD It's been incomplete long enough, right? I just hope I didn't lose that many readers (not that I had that many to begin with, but you get my point). We're almost done; after this chapter, there will only be an epilogue. Anyways, some shameless advertisement; for the Riku lovers out there: I've made some Riku-centered one-shots, too and I would be honored if you'd take a look at them. :) Oh, and a warning: this chapter has slight BBS spoilers, but I'm sure that most of you have finished that game by now.**

**Thanks: SitarLover, AreYouStillThere, dannielovessora, 22wolfgirl, hikariserenity, The Silver Magician of Chaos, LBWind, TheKeeperofKingdomHearts2, and XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX.**

* * *

_~ Honestly, if he told her now that he was Xehanort's son, then she would possibly instantly die of a heart-attack. ~_

* * *

She suddenly started to regret the fact that she had thought about scary stories just a few hours ago, for it wasn't something she needed now. It only made her more scared. This was all Riku's fault...

Could they be burglars? Possibly. Or kidnappers? Maybe, but that was less probable. Heartless and Nobodies? Perhaps it was Xehanort! Her heart skipped a beat or two when she thought about the possible consequences if it really was him. She quickly recovered, though and admonished herself for the second time that day. There was no need for her to think these stupid thoughts. They were useless. It just couldn't be true. Even Xehanort wasn't _that_ stupid to break into one of his students' houses at night, right? Not after he had a hunch that all the Keyblade bearers on the Islands were suspicious as to what his secret plans were. It was practically signing your death wish.

She got up, as quiet as was possible, and grabbed the baseball bat that she had placed near her bed, just in case. It was her improvised weapon. Who had ever thought that she would need it this soon? For the very first time in her life she was more than happy that she always was so careful and paranoid. Some called it crazy and needless, but she called it 'precaution.' After all, this was _Xehanort_ they were talking about. That man - she still had to get used to the fact that he now somehow had a heart. How that had been possible, was still a mystery for her - was the devil himself.

She opened the door, that creaked slightly. She winced, because it sounded too hard in the quietness of the house, almost like some bomb went off right next to her ear. Her heart started beating faster and faster, too. She hoped fervently that those people downstairs hadn't heard it... if they were actually human. Slowly, taking step by mini steps, she got closer to the stairs. She thought it was kinda strange that those bulglars made so much noise. It she had been in their place, then she would at least not talk this hard to wake up the rest of the house. But hey, what did she know? She wasn't a pro at stealing stuff. At least she now knew that her aunt wasn't with them. What was it with them, anyway? Did they actually want to get caught stealing, or something?

She continued her way downstairs, feeling more and more confused with their behavior. She didn't step on the stairs from which she knew that would creak. When she was finally downstairs, she lifted the baseball bat slightly higer above her head, ready to strike whenever it was necessary. Opening the other door slightly, she saw how the moonlight illuminated the strangest things she had ever seen in her whole life. Her heart stood still when she kept watching the peculiar sight. She held the doorknob with her free hand, trying not to faint.

In front of her, there was a semblance of a tall, well-built young man, but he was completely made out of thick, sometimes colored, smoke, almost as if he was a ghost. She had never seen him before, but he seemed to be so familiar. He was quite handsome, too, with dark brown hair that reached to the base of his neck in the back. There was no point denying that. It was styled into rather messy, vertical spikes and bangs that framed his face quite nicely. At this moment, she couldn't see what the color of his eyes or his skin were, but somehow, she found no problem with imagining that he had a slightly tanned skin and deep, cobalt blue eyes.

Hailey's breath caught in her throat when the stranger's eyes fell on her. When she regained her voice again, she asked him, "W-who are you?" The young man stepped towards her, but that only made her panic rise. "Stay where you are!" she cried, tightening her grip on the baseball bat, so her knuckles turned white.

The guy then finally saw her "weapon" and decided to listen to her and answer the question, before she would freak out completely. "I'm Terra," was all he said.

_Terra, she thought. Wasn't that Latin for 'Earth?_' _How fitting..._

That name kind of suited him, but she had no idea why she thought that. She noticed that he had a deep voice that was rather pleasant to the ears. The raven-haired teenage girl started investigating his outfit. He wore two intersecting straps over his chest, almost resembling criss-crossed suspenders. A golden badge that was on his belt glistened slightly in the light that the street lamps outside provided them. The skintight, black, high-collared shirt he was wearing, showed that he was rather muscular. If this Terra chose to start a fight with her, she probably wouldn't be able to win from him. She bet that he'd realized that, too, despite the distance that he'd kept after seeing the baseball bat.

His pants bore a distinct feudal Japanese style; his belt was tied like an obi-sash and he wore hakama*, which was dark grey near the top, with several loops for his belt and two buttons, both of which undone. Hailey's gaze now travelled to the plain black wristband on his right arm, while his left arm was significantly more... armored? What was it, really? It seemed to be made out of gold and reached all the way to the bottom of his hand. Was he a warrior, or something? The armor seemed to be all over the place. Even his boots, which were dark brown and gold, were armored. The next question was, what was a warrior doing here in her house?

"Where are you from and what are you doing here?" she asked then, noticing that he also wore a black, fingerless glove on his hand and what appeared to be a gauntlet on his forearm, over the segmented armor, which also had small pieces of dark red armor on it.

"I've lived in a warm and beautiful wo- uh, _place _before I came here."

The raven-haired girl narrowed her eyes slightly. She couldn't help but notice how he slipped in the middle of his sentence. It was awkward, really. And highly suspicious. She was sure that he had wanted to say 'world,' but he'd swiftly changed it into 'place,' so she wouldn't start asking questions. There was only one reason why he would do that; the fact that there were more worlds outside this one had to stay hidden for those who didn't know this. She'd heard this many times from different people. He probably thought that she was one of those people who didn't know anything, too, but boy was he wrong!

"Don't worry, I know that there are more worlds aside from this one," Hailey assured him.

"Oh... Okay."

A slightly awkward silence was what followed, until she broke it with, "Which world did you come from?"

"I lived in the Land of Departure for most of my life, but the world I originally came from was lost into darkness a long time ago. I was a pupil of Master Eraqus. He was the one who found me when I was little and gave me a new home, a new future, something to look out for."

"I see..."

She knew many worlds by name, all from the time that she had been with her uncle and the Ansem-guy, but she had honestly never heard of the Land of Departure before. It was a rather strange name for a world, too, as if it wasn't the world's real name. It also almost sounded like people weren't welcome to stay there. Perhaps it was a cold world, always in a winter state, or something and people left the place because they were sick of it. She also had never heard of this 'Master' Eraqus. He seemed to be an important and wise man. A master of what could he be?

"As for what I'm doing here," he continued calmly, "..._You_ were the one who brought me your house. I was just trying to get away from here."

She lifted her eyebrows at that. "_Me_? What are you _talking_ about? I was sleeping all this time, until _you_ who woke me up, that is," she noted, accusing him lightly.

She truly hated it when someone woke her up far too early, especially when his story didn't make any sense at all. When that happened, she stayed grumpy for at least three hours after that. And this guy was making it sound like she had kidnapped him and let him stay here against his will. It was nonsense, really. This made her wonder if he was sane...

"...Sorry," Terra said, with a slight smirk tugging at his lips. Apparently, he found it quite amusing that she was starting to get grumpy. In a more serious tone, he continued, "You might want to sit down if you really want to know what I'm doing here, though." Hailey gave the young man a strange look, but she still decided to do what he said. After putting on the lights so the atmosphere would look less eerie, she sat down on the comfortable sofa and motioned for her 'guest' to do the same. Terra sat down next to her, not too close, yet not too far away from her to make it all awkward, either. The next question startled her. "You seem to know Xehanort, don't you?"

She widened her dark chocolate brown eyes in surprise, not expecting in the least to hear such a direct, to-the-point question from him. One that had an affirmative answer, too. What had Xehanort to do with all of this? Was this young man a spy, hired by that bastard? Then she'd better be careful around him.

"Yes, I do..." she replied. "How would you know?"

"Believe me, I know more than you think," was the mysterious answer.

Oh, so he was one of those cocky guys she had to deal with now? Or did he always speak in riddles?

"What do you mean by that?" she inquired further, hoping to get more information out of him, instead of this mumbo jumbo.

"I meant that I know Xehanort, more than anyone. I know how his mind works, what he's thinking, what his goals are and how far he can go to get to them..." he explained, trailing off.

"So... are you and Xehanort family, or something?"

Honestly, if Terra told her now that he was Xehanort's son, then she would possibly instantly die of a heart-attack. On the other side, she shouldn't be too surprised if something like this happened. After all, there were stranger things in this world.

"The truth is that I-"

He wasn't able to finish his sentence, though, because right at that moment, someone from behind them started to attack him with some object. "What in Kingdom Hearts's name are you? You'd better stay away from Hailey, or else...!" was only a part of what she said.

Terra had swiftly jumped away from her, shielding his head with his arms.

"Auntie, stop it! He's on our side," the raven-haired girl swiftly said, in an attempt to make her now highly violent aunt stop from hitting him.

It seemed to work, even though the woman still didn't seem to trust the young man. "Are you a... ghost?" the elder female asked, still clutching her weapon, which happened to be a ladle, tightly.

"No," was the direct reply.

"Then why are you like this?"

Terra sighed wearily, running a hand through his dark locks. "It's a pretty long story," he admitted.

"And we have all the time," Hailey reminded her aunt.

"Very well, then. It all started exactly thirteen years ago. I don't remember that much of it, because I've lost some of my memories, but I guess I can tell you the big lines..." he started, after giving aunt Veronica a wary look.

* * *

When he was done with telling his story, both women were looking at him as if he'd grown a second head, their mouths wide agape. Terra honestly couldn't blame them for that.

"Okay, let me get this straight. If I really understand all of this, some Keyblade Master called Xehanort took over your heart more than a decade ago, because he wanted all worlds to be in his power. You've been battling with him all this time inside the new Xehanort who tried to take over your body, too. But a few days ago, the headmaster of our school, that very same Xehanort, had managed to ban you out of your own body and locked you up inside the crystal statue that I took with me. Now, you managed to break free from it and you're searching for the new generation of Keyblade Masters?"

"Yes... That pretty much sums it up," Terra nodded.

"Wow, that's so... _messed up_!"

He gave a small smile at that. "Tell me about it."

"I knew that that man was planning something. It was too obvious. But I had never thought him to be this... this clandestine!"

"So what are you going to do next? I mean, if Xehanort sees you, you'll be in big trouble," aunt Veronica said, warningly.

"That's why I need to find the new Keyblade Master. He can set things right again. The sooner the better."

With that being said, he got up and walked away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Hailey asked, surprised.

"I know that Sora and his friend Riku can help me," Terra replied, looking over his shoulder. "And I also know that they're somewhere on this island. I need to find them before Xehanort knows that I know all of this."

"I know, but they're all fast asleep! Sora, Riku and even Xehanort. I'm sure that this can wait till tomorrow morning," she reasoned. "I want Xehanort to be punished just as much as you do, but don't even heroes need to sleep well in order to perform well?"

Terra halted for a moment, before admitting, "I... guess you're right. I'll wait till tomorrow."

Aunt Veronica nodded. "Good. And until then, you can sleep here on the couch. Please make yourself at home."

"Thanks..."

"Oh, don't even mention it," the woman said, before standing up. "I'll go and get a pillow and a blanket. Hailey, could you help me, please?"

Hailey nodded, quickly standing up as well.

They both went upstairs to get what they wanted. After a moment, though, the elder woman stopped her niece, whispering, "Do you think we should trust him?"

"Yes," the teen replied, nodding. "He really sounded honest, even though that was the most incredible story I've ever heard in my whole life. Besides, any enemy of Xehanort is a friend of mine."

"Okay... If you're sure about this."

"Why don't you trust him, auntie?" the girl asked, surprised.

"I don't know... I guess we'll find out soon enough, won't we?"

* * *

Minutes later, Terra was lying quite comfortably on the red sofa in the living room. Still, all he did was tossing and turning, because he couldn't catch any sleep. His transparent body seemed to have a soft glow in the moonlight that fell through the window next to him. The funny thing was that the blanket didn't fall right through him, but fell over him, just like it happened with normal people. This had surprised everyone in the house, including the brunet himself, even though he'd stayed quiet about it.

Tomorrow... He could feel that that was the day that everything would change. He would finally be able to defeat Master Xehanort with the help of others, and see Aqua and Ven again. Everything would be alright again, wouldn't it? For the longest of times, he'd felt as if he'd been in the deepest and darkest part of Hell, but after he'd spoken to Hailey, he'd started getting a little spark of hope. It was barely there, but still, for now, it was enough to keep him on his feet. He swore that he would avenge his best friends and save them from their misery.

Aqua... Ven... it had been just too long ago since they had been united. The last time had been at that aweful Keyblade graveyard and things had gone downhill from that moment on. He really missed him and his heart ached for him.

But first, there was a big war to win. And that was easier said than done. After all, he didn't even know how good Sora and Riku were. What if they had no experience at all? That would even bring him farther from home...

* * *

Hailey was more than glad that she could catch both Sora and Riku before they'd gone to school. They were all at Riku's house, including Kairi.

"Hi, there. Ready for school?" Sora asked, when Hailey entered the living-room, closely followed by Terra, who was dressed in a cloak because of his appearance.

"Who's that?" Riku then asked, suspiciously, as he gave Terra a onceover.

"This is Terra. He's been searching for you two for the longest of times," she replied, at the exact same moment that Terra lowered his hood and revealed his face.

"So, you're the new wielders of the Keyblade, huh?" he asked in a deep voice.

"Maybe... why would you care?" Riku started.

There was something about him, though, that looked awefully familiar about him. He'd seen him somewhere before, a long time ago, Riku was sure of it. The question was, where and when? And why was it as though his brain didn't cooperate to remember him fully?

Terra ignored his attitude and asked instead, "Which one of you is Sora?"

"Uh... I am," the spiky-haired teen replied, raising his hand hesitantly.

"Good. Then I challenge you to a fight, man to man."

Hailey raised a brow at his blunt directness, but she didn't say anything about it.

"Wait, _what_?"

Sora didn't have much time to wonder if the guy was sane, because at that moment, Terra's Keyblade materialized in his hand and he went for a straight attack to Sora. The teen quickly ducked behind a furniture. If his reflexes hadn't been fast enough, it surely would've cost his head. The spiky-haired boy quickly dashed outside, to the backyard, where they had more space. Terra followed him, with the other teens on his heels.

"Where did you find him?" Riku muttered, giving Hailey a sidelong glance.

"He just showed up in our living room a few hours ago," the raven-haired girl replied. "But don't worry. He's on our side, he's just testing Sora's strenght. He was trapped in the crystal statue by Xehanort."

The intensity in which both Keyblades were clashing against each other was so stark that sparks of fire appeared every now and then. Both fighters were moving so fast that they sometimes became a complete blur. It was more than obvious that Terra was very practised in the art of wielding the Keyblade. It was as though unlike Sora, he had trained for years upon years. If they didn't know any better, they would say that the young man could read Sora's thoughts. He seemed to know exactly what his next move would be, so he had no problem at all at blocking all his attacks and going into offense himself.

Sora tried to dodge as best as he could, but his movements were becoming more and more sloppy. It was a sign that he was getting tired and honestly, nobody could blame him for that. Terra was fiercer than a hurricane.

"Wow, he sure is fast," Kairi noted. "I'm not sure if Sora can hold on for too long."

"No, he can do this. He's been through worse, after all," Riku reminded her.

"So's Terra."

Kairi then gasped, because Terra had been _this_ close to actually hurt him badly. Still, Sora didn't plan on giving up... until he was lying with his back on the grass, with Terra's Keyblade at his neck, that is.

"Not bad," Terra admitted, before giving Sora a hand and helping him up.

Truth was, Terra himself was getting a bit rusty since he hadn't trained for at least ten years. He thought it was showing, but he'd still been able to defeat Sora. He didn't know if he should be proud of himself for such an achievement, or scared because Sora really wasn't in a shape at all.

"Thanks! You really caught me by surprise!"

The brunet warrior smirked at that. "Sorry 'bout that. I'll be sure to warn you next time."

"Yeah, that would be great. I really thought you were going to kill me for a moment."

"As if I would get away with that. Your friend would kill me for sure. Still, we have some work to do."

"Yeah, especially if I compare myself to you," Sora muttered, scratching the back of his head rather sheepishly. "Are you going to teach me?"

"Yes, but you'll have to take the Mastery Exam somewhere else," he explained.

"The Mastery Exam? What's that?" Sora wondered.

"Oh... right. I think I need to explain some things to you, before we start."

And so, the brunet stranger started telling the story of his life to them, along with what he expected from them, realizing all the while that they still had a long way to go in order to be able to defeat their foe.

* * *

**A/N: Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading... if I still have readers, that is. ;P I know that this was most of a filler chapter, but I've lost interest in this story. So after the epilogue, chapter 19, you can say that the story continues as KH3. I did make other Riku-centered stories, though.**

***Hakama: traditional samurai pants distinguished by the large pleats.**


	19. Epilogue

**A/N: Ah, at last. I've been looking forward to this moment. The epilogue is up. :D Enjoy! ;)**

* * *

_~ This was it. Things would change forever as soon as they set their first step on that Gummi Ship. ~_

* * *

The palm trees waved softly in the gentle wind and the clear sky was smeared with different colors this evening, from fire red to a soft lilac shade, all thanks to the sun who was starting to set. All in all, it was a peaceful sight, especially with the sound of the seagulls and the waves clashing against the rocky surface in the background. The glistening blue sea reflected the sky that was above it quite brilliantly. The place resembled a beautiful painting, mady by a highly skilled painter. Any other moment, Hailey would've taken this moment to try to take in this serene scene, but this time, there were other important things that called her attention first.

"Hailey... I wanted to thank you for trusting me. And for being a great help," Terra said with a genuine smile.

"Don't mention it, Terra. It was the least I could do for a friend."

The tall brunet gave her an amicable pat on the shoulder, along with a nod, before retreating again. Hailey started rubbing her shoulder as soon as he'd turned around. There would surely be another bruise there tomorrow.

_Gee... Seems like the guy doesn't know his own strength_, she thought.

After Terra had entered the Gummi ship, it was Riku's turn to have a talk with the raven-haired girl, while Sora took his chance to have a moment alone with Kairi, a few feet away from them. "So," he started, looking behind him where a red and yellow-colored Gummi ship hovered right above the ground.

It was ready to take off, just waiting for the three guys to enter the ship. The vehicle itself was being maintained by a pair of chipmunks, Chip and Dale.

Hailey followed his gaze and suppressed a sigh. This was it. Things would change forever as soon as they set their first step on that Gummi Ship. Everyone knew that, even if they stayed quiet about it. However, a certain kind of tension was pervading the air, almost palpable. This new journey, in which only Sora, Riku and Terra would go, was very important. All the worlds would either be saved... or fade into everlasting darkness. It all depended on the trio's actions. If Hailey, who was watching from the sidelines this time, was this nervous already, she couldn't imagine how the wielders of the Keyblade had to feel right now.

"So... I guess this is a goodbye, then?" the ebony-haired girl asked.

"Not goodbye. Just a 'See you'," he corrected her with a lift of his eyebrow.

She smiled at that. "Okay... See you. And be careful."

"I will... You know me. Take care," Riku said softly, as he gently brushed some stray strands out of her face.

"You too, Riku... or should I say... '_Ansem_'?"

This actually caught him by surprise.

Riku's aquamarine colored eyes widened considerably. "How did you-"

"Oh, I've been having a hunch for quite a while and when I read aunt Veronica's book, it set me thinking," she replied with a smirk.

"I see..."

Riku scratched the back of his head and then ran a gloveless hand through his hair, almost as if he was contemplating something. Before Hailey could prepare herself in any way, Riku bent down slightly and gave her a quick peck on the lips. At once, she felt how her cheeks became scarlet red. Riku was about to say something about that, when someone else started.

"Okay, guys. We really should leave now, otherwise we'll arrive too late at the King's Palace," Sora called, after he'd told Kairi farewell.

From that place, they were bound to go to someone called Yen Sid, who would help them with their training. That was also where they would get more information and aid for their new journey.

"Think we've got everything we need with us?" the spiky-haired boy asked.

"I hope so, otherwise I'll get very pissed off at you and you'd better sleep with one eye open," Riku noted, warningly.

The twinkle in his eyes told them all, however, that he was just making a joke, no matter how serious he sounded.

When the Gummi ship took off, both Hailey and Kairi watched it go until it was a distant dot in the sky, resembling a star.

Kairi sighed, wearily. "I'm gonna miss the boys."

"...Me too, but I'm sure they're going to be okay."

"Yeah," Kairi replied. "And you know what happens when they get back?"

"No..." she said, slowly, curiosity evident in her voice.

"They have a lot of school work to catch up to."

This made both girls laugh, knowing that neither of them were going to like this fact.

But for now, all they could do was wait. Wait, and hope that the boys would come back safely.

* * *

**A/N: Thanks for staying this long with me! This story is kinda special to me, after all, it's my very first story on this site and now I'm 115 stories further. I feel kinda relieved that this story's finally finished, especially because my inspiration for this story is dying.**

**REVIEW SHOUT-OUT: AGCourtney, Kai Saitou, Lexcia, my friend, CrystalEarth, Schizophrenic. Artlessness .13, IchiNukeChuu, native-kitten, xSweetNightmaresx, XxX-SparklingEyes-XxX, Soul of Doom, TheKeeperofKingdomHearts2, DestinyCrusader, and last, but certainly not least, SitarLover.**


End file.
